The Fem Harry Short Stories
by the stargate time traveller
Summary: Written with kind permission from other authors who let me use various aspects of their own work, different versions of FemHarry in different universes fight Lord Voldemort in their own way.
1. The Black Widow

My thanks to White Angel of Auralon, whose "Hunt" and questionablequotation's "If Looks can Kill" gave me the inspiration and permission to write these short stories.

Rated M for good reason.

Please tell me what you think.

The Black Widow.

The muggle needed a fresh dose of love potion, she judged as she looked at him. It was there in his expression - a lack of a hold over his feelings, a bit dopey, uncertainty about her. If she didn't top up the supply of potion in his blood then he would eventually shake off the potion and come back to his senses. The witch couldn't allow that. Too much was riding on this, far too much. If the muggle shook off control now, then months of work would be lost. Walking over to where her potion stash was, the witch opened the little box containing the vials of the potion while her victim watched her approach him with a smile, taking in her exquisite hour-glass figure, but his smile disappeared when she levelled a long black stick at him - her wand. Waving her wand, Violet incanted, "Imperio!"

She loved this particular curse - it was illegal in many countries and as long as she was careful the spell wouldn't be picked up by any magical country, but sometimes she used mind-controlling spells and potions that were far less powerful. It was the rush she felt every time she used the spell, the feeling of control she got over this so-called powerful muggle that thrilled her no end. That was why she used it.

He was kind of pathetic as her spell instantly claimed his mind, and his eyes appeared vacant. "Come here," she ordered.

The muggle stood up and walked over to her silently and stood to attention like a soldier on a parade ground. He was clearly struggling to overcome the spell, but he couldn't. Violet gave him a brief once over, licking her lips at the sight of his cock before she got control over herself as she stood in front of the muggle in her dark red silk negligee. Delicately she lifted a vial out of the box and handed it out.

"Take the vial."

The muggle took the vial.

"Open it and drink the potion," Violet ordered.

The muggle opened the vial and drank the whole lot in one go and swallowed it down.

Violet flicked her long blond hair back over her shoulder, thankful for the glamour charms she had used to cover her appearance. "Good," she whispered silkily, flicking her wand again and cancelling the spell. With the spell lifted off of him, the man took a deep breath but as soon as his eyes met hers, they misted over with love. Violet waved her wand at him, mentally thinking of the last two minutes as she wiped his memory. By the time the muggle had recovered from the violations dumped in his person, he was looking at her with love but also curiosity.

"What are we doing up, I thought we were going to bed?" he asked.

Violet giggled at the man, putting on the same airhead persona she used to ensnare many a man into her web. "We were always going to do that, sweetie," she cooed at him, thankful the spells on her wrist holster stopped him noticing her wand. She also had to restrain the urge to snort at how accepting the man was of her reply, but she had trained herself as an actress to keep her amusement of him hidden. From all of them, she thought in amusement as she thought of her previous husbands, who were now dead and probably yelling at this guy to not let her get too close. Gently but firmly, she pushed him onto the edge of the bed, lighting pushing his legs apart so then she'd have easy access to when she reached her grand finale.

A coy smile still in place, Violet began to dance. The muggle's eyes widened and a whisper of breath left his mouth as he watched her dance, and she giggled again, though this time there was more amusement laced into the giggle - no matter how many times this fool had seen her dance and perform in front of him, he always had his breath taken away.

Then again it had always been that way. Her well-formed body had given her an edge in seducing men.

Part of Violet wondered if it was because of the love potion she'd been sneaking into him for the last two years, but she didn't care. With her two hands to support her on the bed, on either side of the man, she gyrated like a stripper from a sleazy bar, her mouth only a few millimetres away from his cock, which was becoming more and more rigid as its owner grew excited as she danced, but she knew her hot breath was only adding to the erotic moment as she danced in a silk negligee in high heeled stilettos.

After bending down over the cock again and stopping the dance, Violet took the throbbing member into her mouth and bobbed up and down its length, running her tongue over it and feeling the veins. She didn't need to look up at the muggle as his body shifted in pleasure, and she didn't need to open her eyes since she knew the muggle, her husband, in fact, had fallen back on the bed in bliss as the blowjob hit him. She gently left her teeth graze the soft skin, making him cry out in pleasure.

A few hours later after Violet and her muggle husband had fucked themselves continually, the witch got out of the bed and strode towards the window to look out over the city. She and her husband lived in a penthouse apartment in New York. Violet looked over the twinkling lights of the city, breathing in and out gently while she stood there, stark naked, uncaring about the possibility of any other muggles in the city looking at her body as it stood in the doorway.

She smirked at the thought of them lusting after her. Sometimes she had the curtains left open so they could stare at her as she stripped herself for her husband to entertain him.

"I love being a whore sometimes," she whispered to herself. That was one of the many descriptions Violet would use to describe herself. She had lost her virginity as quickly as possible because she couldn't exactly become a black widow without knowing what would come. Ever since she'd discovered the existence of love potions, she'd known that even that brand of magic wouldn't be enough. She had learnt the need to keep her men entertained and entranced with her before she was ready to act. Though she knew deep down she was as cold-hearted as the next serial killer, though personally, she didn't see herself as a serial killer. She didn't see anything wrong with what she did. She was simply earning a living. If she had to play the long game in order to get what she wanted, what of it?

Violet was a black widow. She was also a witch born from the Potter family in Magical Britain, or at least she had been until she had disowned herself when she'd discovered that her plans for her future were in jeopardy. Violet grimaced as she thought about her reaction to that point in her life, and with that memory came everything else.

The eldest child of the Potter family, Violet had been four years old when Lord Voldemort had attacked them. In his infinite wisdom and his ability to make mistakes without really thinking through his actions because he couldn't look beyond his crooked nose, Albus Dumbledore had dropped her off at her mother's bitter sister, Petunia and her pig of a husband.

Violet closed her eyes as she remembered the abuse heaped on her shoulders for three years before she'd managed to escape. She felt fortunate for two reasons - the first was she was older than a baby, maybe not by much, or she would really have been in trouble, and secondly because she had learnt how to keep out of Vernon Dursley's way, though that hardly worked.

Still, if she hadn't lived with the Dursleys then she would never have found her true calling in life. No, that wasn't just being a slut. When she had been five years old, she had been with Mrs Figg, the cat-obsessed woman in Privet Drive. No-one in the neighbourhood thought highly of the woman, she was a batty old hag who was obsessed with cats. Violet didn't mind cats personally, but Mrs Figg had almost put her off them for life, and then there was the stench of cabbage in her home that made her hate the dump.

Violet had always disliked the woman and she hadn't cared if the old hag knew it or not, but then again it would probably never have registered with her since she always forgot that she had told Violet whenever she'd been unfortunate enough to have to spend a day at her home whenever the Dursleys were doing something with Dudley, so by the time she returned to that filthy cupboard under the stairs her mind would be awash with the names of dozens of cats but would have only pictures of cats in her mind.

It had been rare for Mrs Figg to let Violet have some time to herself and watch a movie or something, but when she had the girl had always jumped at the chance to watch something and listen to something other than the names of some moggies the senile old bat could barely scrape out of her faulty memory. When she had been about five years old, Violet had watched Black Widow with Debra Winger and Theresa Russell. She had watched enthralled as the femme fatale had married one man after another before she killed them for their money.

Violet knew that the Dursleys would be overjoyed to keep her from having a life of her own, so she had made a plan to escape their clutches. It had taken her over a month to prepare, to think of a way out. The best opportunity of escape was whenever Petunia escorted herself and Dudley to the primary school, so she'd taken it when the woman had her back turned. After that, it was easy to escape. She had stolen some money and headed off to London after changing her clothes. After being taken into a foster home, Violet had changed her name so no-one could send her back to the Dursleys, but the foster home allowed her to grow as a person and since no-one knew of her past she was allowed to be her own person. She joined a few gangs in London and became an able pickpocket and thief. She also used the time to study black widow serial killers so she could study their tactics.

All the time Violet had realised she had some power that no-one could possibly understand, and she didn't know where it came from. She never told anybody as she began using the ability to do all kinds of things, though she was limited in how much she could actually do.

And then she had discovered she was a witch. Violet didn't believe in god, but she had to admit there was something almost pre-ordained by the meeting with a muggle-born witch and wizard who were living in the magical world but had ventured out into the muggle world for a few days, and they found her practising magic. Assuming she was a muggle-born herself like them, the kindly couple took Violet into the magical world and helped her find her way around (the story was a little more complicated than that, but it was simpler to understand it like this) and because she had an extra year before she was due to attend Hogwarts she made secret arrangements when she discovered the truth of her biological family.

While she was at Gringotts after she'd found out how to get into the alley, she had discovered the blocks placed on her magic and had had them removed. She had found out how to alter her appearance and used that to disguise herself so then no-one could join the dots.

Another thing she discovered was a marriage contract between herself and someone called Ronald Weasley. Violet growled under her breath - it had been years since it had happened, but the anger she had felt towards someone for deciding her future like her own opinion didn't matter was still annoying.

The Potters thought she was missing and with the marriage contract over her head, Violet had made the decision to disown herself from the Potter family. The goblins performed the ritual and Violet Lily Potter became simply Violet Cantrell after one of the characters in Stephen Coonts Saucer novels. Her new name was simple and straightforward.

Violet went to Hogwarts three years ahead of her so-called brother, Adam and was sorted into Ravenclaw house. The sorting hat had wanted to sort her into Slytherin due to her ambitious and rather cutthroat nature, but around that point, she had heard of the stigma the house had received thanks to Voldemort's actions. Violet had kept her head down, hoping all the time Dumbledore just left her to her own devices and didn't pay much attention to her. She had dyed her hair blond as part of a whim, and it seemed to have worked. She wasn't called up by the old fool and he didn't spend any of his time following her around, he seemed to have left her alone for the most part.

Shivering slightly though she didn't really register the cold, Violet remembered the dramas that came out of her 'brother's' arrival at the school, but as she was three years ahead of Adam she didn't pay much attention to him since she was learning all she could about magic, especially love potions. Unfortunately, the potions master at the school was a right bastard, but what made it worse was he didn't really teach her or anybody else for that matter the intricacies of potion making. Violet would never have learnt how to brew the types of potions she utilised if she had stayed under Snape's wonderful tutelage. She hired a tutor to help her learn how to brew potions, a lovely woman who was apparently in high demand because of what Snape was doing at Hogwarts.

Even before she was sorted into Ravenclaw, Violet loved knowledge and absolutely hated it when it was either restricted or it was being deliberately withheld. Violet had never understood why Snape was allowed to stay at Hogwarts with his attitude and the way he acted. If he were still alive then she would very happily have killed him.

It was academic since Snape had been dead for so long now. Violet had never really paid much attention to the so-called adventures her 'brother' found himself in, but she had followed him and kept track of what he was doing. She may not have been his sister in name or whatever else witches and wizards put stock in families, but Adam was still her brother in her mind. And that was what mattered. She didn't care for magical traditions, but she wasn't as stupid as Hermione Granger was who couldn't seem to keep her gob shut.

When Violet left Hogwarts during Adam's third year, she had gone straight into Curse-Breaker training and had quickly become one of their best Curse-breakers, you would have thought she wouldn't have had the time to go out into the muggle world and find muggle men to seduce and entice with the help of love potions. The answer was her bosses didn't care what she did with her time, and they definitely did not care at all about her extracurricular activities, so she was free to do what she wanted. Violet was even allowed to plunder some of the tombs in whatever country she was in, but as long as she brought back tonnes of treasure, the goblins didn't care. It was understandably amazing just how many other curse-breakers pocketed old scrolls, gems, things like that.

When the war between the so-called "light" and the "dark" broke out (it never failed to amaze her how dramatic the magical world was), she was safely learning how to hack into cursed tombs, while all the time using potions on muggle men while under disguise and finding out the secrets of the rich so then she could either blackmail them or she would later marry one of them so she could take their fortunes.

Violet didn't really pay that much attention to the magical world's situation - the pureblood supremacist philosophy was so boring and tedious that she only paid the minimum amount of attention to it whenever the subject had come up at Hogwarts.

But she did pay attention when something surprising happened.

Violet's brow furrowed as she remembered the scene…..

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Walking through Diagon Alley was an eye-opener to Violet as she walked through it. The shopping alley in Magical London was virtually a ghost town. Many of the shops were barred and boarded up with signs saying "CLOSED FOR BUSINESS" though a few of the shops, particularly Fortescue's Ice-cream parlour looked like they'd been torched in a riot.

There weren't that many witches and wizards shopping today, but their heads were darting about in all directions as if just waiting for the Death Eaters to leap out of hiding and strike them down. Violet walked through the alley, completely uncaring that she was standing out in her black jacket and white T-shirt, dark purple cargo pants and trainers that screamed muggle. In fact, many of the people in the alley frowned at her state of dress, but since she knew what the reason was she didn't pay it much mind, though she was aware that her style would be asking for trouble.

But the Death Eaters would be getting a painful surprise if they attacked her. Violet may not have been keeping up to date with the news in her home country, but she knew the light was being their usual stupid selves by not fighting fire with fire in the stupid belief they would be lowering themselves if they killed their enemies.

Violet didn't really care for those rules. She had killed her own fair share of people already, though she hadn't used a wand in battle though she had learnt from her mistakes in the Room of Requirement after she'd asked the House-elves in the castle where she could learn how to fight and protect herself. Completely nonchalant about the aura surrounding the alley, Violet walked into Gringotts. She was in there for over an hour, but when she came out into the lobby she was surprised to see Adam Potter trying to speak to one of the tellers. Giving in to her curiosity, Violet headed close to the teller.

"I have my key," the boy was saying. "I need to get away from here!"

Violet narrowed her eyes. What did he mean by get away from here? She took a closer look at the boy and saw at once he was looking stressed out like he had been going only on a few minutes of sleep, and not getting much to sleep. He looked like he was almost on the verge of collapsing.

The teller was stubborn. "I am afraid your current vault will do no good for you, Mr Potter," he said, "the contents will not help you buy an international portly."

Violet gasped in surprise.

Adam, being the stupid boy he was at times, went on in a harsh whisper. "I am the kid supposed to destroy Vol-I mean, You-Know-Who. But Dumbledore didn't teach me how to fight, my dad and uncles helped but they're nowhere near You-Know-Who's level. I need to leave so I can train properly."

"I'm afraid I can't help you, Mr Potter," the goblin repeated, but he leaned closer and hissed. "Perhaps if you and your family had focused more, this would not be happening."

Seeing the teller's attitude was about to make her former brother explode, Violet stepped in. "Excuse me, Master Teller," she said, announcing her presence and stepping forwards. "If he's bothering you, I can take him out."

The teller looked relieved. It was clear to Violet he was about to summon some goblin guards and get them to kick the young wizard out, something Violet knew would not help the young boy out. But before Adam could open his mouth to protest, Violet had already taken her wand out and narrowed her gaze at him, planting one of her hands on his narrow shoulder and gently led him away from the teller.

"There are thirteen other witches and wizards in this bank," she whispered to him, "did you really think the so-called Boy Who Lived would be unnoticeable?"

"What are you going to do to me, take me to Vol-You-Know-Who?"

Violet laughed scornfully at the boy's lack of imagination, the simplistic view of the world he had was enough to annoy her for a while. "If I were a Death Eater, I wouldn't have used diplomacy to take you away from that goblin. We wouldn't be having this conversation."

Adam stopped and she sighed in irritation. "What is it? Surprised that the world isn't divided like Dumbledore probably told you it was into Dark Lords, Death Eaters, and the so-called good guys? Get used to it, kid. Now come along, we need to get to the entrance so I can cast a glamour charm on you, you need to get back to Hogwarts-," she said.

"I can't. I'm on a mission Dumbledore put me on," Adam interrupted.

Violet sighed again. "A mission that would've taken you outside Britain?" she pointed out. "I wonder how the rest of the magical world would've felt if their precious saviour left them in their hour of need." She mocked him.

"I don't care what they think," Adam sulked as they headed for the entrance of the bank. "They've loved me, hated me, scorned me. They don't realise I don't want to kill Voldemort-,"

"Hey, what do you mean by that?" Violet swung the boy around violently while at the same time wondering how long they had before trouble really came - it was clear Potter hadn't bothered to think any of this through, but the longer they were here the easier it would be for him to be tracked down.

Adam looked away. "I can't tell you," he replied.

Violet roughly grabbed the boy by the chin and ignored his cries and looked him deeply in the eyes. "Listen to me, kid," she snapped. "I heard you talk to the teller about skipping the country to find help. I bet you wish you didn't walk around the school with your head in the clouds."

Without giving the boy a chance to resist, she grabbed him and mentally thought about the transfer point outside her temporary abode.

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Adam was furious when they arrived at her home, but Violet paid him no mind as she shoved him onto a couch. Part of her was worried about the alert the wards had given out, and she guessed Adam was carrying something dangerous but she pushed that aside. "Sit down and relax," she said softly into his ear and went off to prepare some food. Adam must have been hungry because when Violet looked up, sensing someone watching her, she found him looking at her and the meat cooking on the cooker.

"Hungry?" she asked.

Adam nodded, his mouth littering watering. "Yeah," he replied thickly. "I've been in a tent with….Ron and Hermione for the last three months, and we've had little to eat, and Ron eats like a pig and has no self-restraint."

Violet didn't need to ask him what he meant by that. A few days after his arrival everyone knew Ron Weasley was a pig and he ate like one. "Speaking of your hangers-on, where are they? I didn't see them in the bank."

Adam sighed. "They left," he admitted quietly. "They left because the mission Dumbledore put us on was getting to all of us, it didn't help the Horcrux was driving us mad- oh no," he groaned as he realised he'd said too much.

But Violet's reaction startled him. "Did you just say Horcruxes?" she gaped.

"Yeah," Adam replied as he realised he may as well get it out into the open. "Vol-You-know-Who-."

"If you're worried about the so-called taboo curse, don't," Violet interrupted him calmly. "The wards on my home were set up before the Taboo curse was put into effect. And the spells I used will make sure any uninvited guests are thrown into the middle of the North Sea. Are you saying Voldemort created Horcruxes?"

"Yes he did," Adam replied. "According to Dumbledore, he made more than one."

Violet gaped at him, she was so stunned by the fact that snake-faced creep had created more than one of those soul pieces without looking to the long-term consequences of his actions the chicken almost got burnt to a crisp. "Listen, if Dumbledore thought there were a few of them, why didn't he do something about them?"

"I don't know," Adam spat in annoyance, annoyance clearly aimed at Dumbledore. That surprised Violet since she had seen with her own two eyes and heard with her own two ears how much the boy worshipped the ground the old wizard walked on.

She came to a decision. "Okay," she said at last. "You and I will talk at dinner, and we will have a crack at those Horcruxes, okay?"

Adam looked at her strangely. "I don't even know you."

Violet laughed as she turned back to the dinner to see how it was going. "My name is Violet Cantrell," she replied, giving her new name freely. "I was in my fourth year when you arrived at Hogwarts."

"What house were you in?"

One of the problems she had with Hogwarts was how nearly every other witch and wizard who attended the place put so much importance on what house you were in. "Ravenclaw," she replied. "Now make yourself useful, grab a knife and fork for the pair of us from that drawer," she gestured to one of the drawers, "and set the table."

Adam did so, but the noise he made nearly drove Violet mad. When they ate their simple meal of chicken, rice and vegetables, Adam and Violet talked.

"You know about Horcruxes?"

"I've come across them in my line of work. I'm a Curse-Breaker. My job means I have to travel the world, and I help others break through into the tombs and chambers scattered around. The Horcrux is not an old magical idea, and every country that has an ancient magical history would have their own version of a Horcrux though it's the same principle - someone incredibly stupid would split their soul and place the piece into a container in the hopes it makes you immortal. It doesn't."

"It doesn't? But Voldemort wants to be immortal, and Dumbledore believes he made more than one!"

Violet shook her head. "Do you know how many people have made Horcruxes over the centuries? Hundreds. Everywhere you go in countries like Egypt, Peru, China, and even in Greece you will find a Horcrux that dates back hundreds of years, but their makers are long since dead. Splitting your soul, contrary to what people in their infinite wisdom might believe, doesn't make you immortal. It's been proven over the centuries that the true effects of the ritual are not really guaranteed. You can split your soul and you might be able to live a hundred or so years after everybody you've known and loved over the years has died, or your lifespan might have been sliced in half."

"Can you destroy the Horcrux I've got?" Adam asked excitedly.

"You've got one of them, and it's in my home?" Violet asked, mentally slapping herself for not bothering to make the connection to what the wards had picked up.

"Yes, do you want me to get it?" Adam was about to stand up but Violet stopped him. "No, it will take a few days to prepare the ritual to drain all of them, and I don't have an amulet we can use to contain the soul pieces."

"Drain all of the soul pieces? You mean we only needed to ask a curse breaker for help?" Adam asked in surprise. Violet nodded, wondering where he was going with this.

"I can't believe this," Adam whispered in surprise as he looked at his half-eaten meal. "All these years Dumbledore could've asked Bill Weasley for help, but even when the information was there he didn't tell anyone, didn't say a thing. All of this would never have happened. We could have gotten rid of Voldemort years ago before he attacked me and my sister died. What was he thinking?"

Violet was surprised Adam knew about his sister, namely her. "Albus Dumbledore is a senile old man," she said, not really caring if she offended Adam. He needed to hear this, he needed to learn how to stand on his own two feet. "But what I don't get is why you and your friends have been lumbered with this mission when experienced witches and wizards should be doing this? Where are your parents in all this?"

"They don't know about the mission," Adam admitted. "Ron and Hermione and I were told to get out of Hogwarts secretly so the Death Eaters couldn't track us down. Dumbledore said he and the Order would keep them busy while we carried on with the task, but Ron and Hermione were frustrated not just with the lack of progress but also because even when we had one of the Horcruxes we couldn't figure out a way to destroy it. They both thought that since Dumbledore had told me about them, then I'd know the answer. But I don't. I spent a year pouring through Voldemort's memories, seeing his past so I could prepare for the inevitable, and all the time he never told me anything I could use."

"He spent a whole year showing you memories instead of showing you in just one or two days?" Violet shook her head. "How stupid is he? Where are they now, Ron and Hermione?"

"I don't know, but it's likely they've told the Order about the mission," Adam replied.

Violet shook her head at how amateurish Dumbledore and his group were. "Listen, I can help you deal with the Horcruxes, that's the easy part. We only need the full moon to help us boost the power of the ritual and we only need to make a simple potion and the soul pieces are in our grasp. But there's the problem of how we're going to drain the soul pieces."

"Drain them, what good would that do?"

"Horcruxes are still connected to the magic of the moron who split their soul," Violet explained. "It doesn't matter how many times you split your soul, the connections are still there. The wizards magic will still be pumped into the soul fragments to keep them alive, like a heart delivering blood through the body. If something happens to the body, or the wizard or witch dies then the 'blood' is stopped, the Horcrux loses a bit of its essence, but not a lot. If you want something to use as a net to stay alive, it's not worth it."

"So, from what you're saying, the Horcruxes are worthless as a way to become immortal," Adam whispered, clearly disgusted with the notion Albus Dumbledore had spent all these years doing nothing, even when the evidence for the Horcruxes was given to him.

"Yes."

Adam shook his head as something entered his mind. "But if that's true then how did Voldemort manage to survive? He was torn from his body in '81 and was left wondering as a wraith. How could he have survived if the Horcruxes don't work like Dumbledore and he thought?"

Violet sighed, running a hand through her hair as she spooned some rice into her mouth, her mind racing as she thought about everything she knew about the Dark Lord. She couldn't believe what Voldemort had done. You would have thought someone as powerful as he was would have had the common sense to look for other means to become immortal. She rubbed her eyes when she realised her knowledge of Voldemort and his followers was practically non-existent. Wait…. followers.

She leaned forwards, startling her guest. "Adam, have you ever seen these Dark Marks the Death Eaters have on their arms?" she asked urgently.

Adam was staring at her in bemusement. "Yeah, I have, why?" he asked.

"This is important. What did Voldemort do with them?"

"Well, when Pettigrew had given his body back, Voldemort pressed his wand into the Mark, and it turned black. Why, what are you getting at?"

Violet closed her eyes. "I think I know how Voldemort planned his immortality," she replied before she opened her eyes again. "Go and sit in the living room," she instructed, "leave me to do the washing up. Put the Horcrux you've got on the coffee table and leave it alone. Okay?"

Adam gave her a strange look but he did as she told him.

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After Violet had done the washing up, she joined him in the living room after spending two minutes in her small library, and she came back with a heavy old volume. "Exploration has always been an interest of mine," Violet said as she sat down and flicked through the pages, "ever since I was a kid. I loved exploring places in muggle London, Manchester, Bristol, Brighton, Glasgow, and New York. I still do. But when I fully fledged Curse-Breaker, I had thousands of doors open for me. I was visiting countries, seeing both the magical and non-magical worlds, but I picked this book up in a magical district in Italy."

"This book is an account of a crew of magical explorers. They had constructed, or grown, a ship made from pure magical crystal. This crystal soaked up all the magical energy around it, so it didn't need refuelling. I have read how these explorers encountered communities in Africa, India, Russia, Thailand, and Australia long before Europe touched them."

Violet flicked through the pages, keeping one eye on Adam who was clearly wondering what she was getting at and what this had to with Voldemort. "When I neared the end, I found something really interesting. You see, some of their crew had gotten sick. They were dying, and the captain was upset because he had sworn they would all return home. So, he did a bit of research, and he found out that something was wrong with their magical cores but because he was too far away from a place where his crew would be properly healed, he had to improvise. He created a magical tattoo which was a connection between the ship itself and them. It took a bit of time, but he managed to create it."

"The crew members recovered, and they were stronger than ever because they were using the magic channelled into them by the ship, and the captain found a way to regulate the flow so their bodies weren't burnt out by the increase in magic. Eventually, the entire crew had the same tattoo placed on them so they could receive the same flow of magic, this was done after a few of them had contracted the same illness as their friends. The same spell used for the tattoo survived, but it was perverted over the years by Dark lords who wanted to live forever; they simply marked their followers with a brand, and they could have kept going if they weren't all slaughtered."

She looked at Adam, who was looking enthralled at the story. "Sound familiar to you?"

"The Dark Mark," Adam whispered. "It wasn't the Horcruxes which kept Voldemort from dying all those years ago when he attacked me and my family, it was the Death Eaters themselves. Even if one or two of them were left if Dumbledore had allowed the Order to kill them, he would have come back."

Violet nodded. "Yes. The Dark Marks are tied into Voldemort's magic, whatever there is left that is, and they feed the magic of the morons who allowed themselves to be branded in such a manner into the Horcruxes and Voldemort's body. If the Horcruxes are drained, they will drain the Death Eaters as well."

Adam looked at her funnily for a second. "They'll become squibs? Muggles?" He asked figuring out what was going to happen to Voldemort's followers.

"Talk about irony," Violet grinned but her grin faded. "Not all of them will become that way, some of them will probably die from the strain. The question is will you actually care about that, or will just say they made their beds and they should lie in them?"

"Definitely. The Death Eaters have been given so many chances it is not funny," Adam replied before he looked down. "Everyone thinks I'm like Dumbledore, that I wouldn't willingly want anyone to die on my watch. I don't like the thought of murder, Violet. But I'm a realist. When Voldemort came back he had someone murdered, a friend. He then tried to kill me, and those so-called 'repentant' Death Eaters laughed as the bastard tortured me. When I fought them in the Ministry, they were stunned so many times - I must have stunned the same Death Eater a dozen times, each time he got up. We're not going to win this war by using stunners. My parents think the same - ever since my sister was killed by Voldemort, they have shifted in their views; they tried to have the Death Eaters, all of them, pushed through the Veil or given the Dementor's kiss."

"Do I care about the Death Eaters? No. They deserve all they get, and while people like Dumbledore or Molly Weasley can dream, they have no place in a war. Let's do it. What do we need to do?"

Violet grinned at him again. "I always thought you liked licking Dumbledore's boots," she said softly before getting right down to business. "Right, I need to check this Horcrux."

Taking out her wand, Violet waved it over the locket Adam had placed on the table. After a moment she looked at the boy. "It's definitely a Horcrux, I just needed to be sure. It makes things easier."

"What do we need to do?" Adam asked excitedly, and Violet could now see that despite all the accolades the boy had received all his life he just wanted it all to be over. She couldn't blame him.

"The first thing we need to do is prepare a ritual to take place on a full moon," Violet explained. "The magic created during the event will help enrich the ritual and help us deal with the Horcruxes in one night. We can do this on any night of the month, of course, but a full moon's enrichment of the ritual will boost the potency of the ceremony. It's a shame you didn't tell the goblins about the Horcruxes. True they would have punished you for taking one of them into their bank, but they'd have gladly gotten rid of it."

"Dumbledore told me to keep them secret, he says they're Voldemort's only weakness and if he ever found out he might take steps to protect them," Adam said though now he said it dismissively now he knew the Horcruxes were completely different to what he'd previously thought them to be. "But why do the goblins hate Horcruxes so much?" he added curiously.

"Horcruxes are seen as abominations, created by an act of murder that splits the soul. The best way to create a Horcrux is to murder an innocent soul," Violet explained grimly, her face turning green as she thought about it.

Adam looked at her in disgusted horror as he worked out what she meant. "An innocent soul?" he repeated. "You don't mean….?" he trailed off, hoping he was clearly wrong.

"A child, the younger the better. Murdering children is the best way to split a soul," Violet replied grimly before she looked thoughtful. "I have heard accounts where people - muggles and wizards - who have killed someone in the past describe feeling they had cut their soul to pieces, but all that's happened is they've done something their conscience wouldn't allow. In the case of a Horcrux, it's true."

Violet looked away for a second clearly lost in thought. Adam watched her, wondering what she was thinking. He had learnt more from Violet about Horcruxes in one day than he'd ever done with Dumbledore.

"There's another reason the goblins hate Horcruxes," Violet said suddenly. "Priceless treasures have been desecrated or destroyed because the morons who created them couldn't find anything more expendable to use to house the piece, while some so-called experts believe the crap written in books by authors who didn't have a clue what they were writing about. The Darkest Arts is the best example of bull-shit you could ever hope to encounter in a book. So many idiots believe that the best way to destroy a Horcrux is to destroy the container. While that method works, it's not elegant. That's the brute force approach, and while it works there are better ways to deal with the Horcruxes that only require a bit more patience so you can do the actual research."

Adam shook his head. "That sounds like Dumbledore to me," he said, surprising Violet with his comment. "He had suspected Voldemort had made the Horcruxes, but he sat on the knowledge for decades, never once trying to find anything definitive out. It wasn't until recently I found out he'd been waiting for Slughorn to give him a memory of Voldemort as a teenager, asking about the Horcruxes and how to create them that I realised he could have taken the knowledge at any time."

"What's this? Who's Slughorn?" Violet whispered in surprise.

For the next ten minutes, Adam told her the story. He told her how Dumbledore had held the remains of one of the Horcruxes, though years later Adam found out that not only did the old headmaster already guess what Voldemort had done, but he had spent years waiting for one of the old professors who'd taught Voldemort as a teenager to come forward with a memory about the meeting.

Violet shook her head in surprise. "I can understand why Slughorn would want to hide the memory," she whispered at last, surprising Adam a little bit. "Horcruxes are taboo in many magical countries; even creating one is like asking for your death. It's an instant death sentence in countries like Egypt and China, but no-one in any of their right minds would even think of creating one. From the sounds of it, Voldemort found a minute reference to a Horcrux in the Hogwarts library and believed that was the key to immortality, but that's stupid. The Board of Governors has spent decades holding back the funds to properly replace the books in that library, among other things where funds are badly needed, like those broomsticks which are no good for anything except kindling. But now I've got proof of Dumbledore's stupidity."

"What do you mean?"

"Well in other countries, the Horcruxes are taught to schoolchildren, not the ritual itself, but their general history. For instance, in magical China, there was a warlord who had split his soul twice, and he went mad. From what I've heard, the warlord split his soul because he had heard of a reference to them, only unlike Voldemort, he had access to more concrete information about them. The Chinese people had a hard time mitigating the worst of the mess while keeping the muggles unaware of what was happening. The splitting of his soul was done so crudely, and the warlord was so mad he boasted about what he had done, that he was immortal and soon the entire world would bow before him, but quite a few of his army deserted," Violet explained. "They wanted power, but they had become so terrified by his madness they had become frightened he would turn on them. They told the Chinese ministry where to find the Horcruxes. After that, it was easy to get rid of them. But the damage he had wrought, the devastation and the loss of life was so great the Chinese gave themselves the task to learn more about the Horcruxes and their properties. Now, their country teaches the history of them and what they can and can't do. Chinese witches and wizards learn about the horrors of the war graphically through the preserved memories of people who witnessed the horrors the warlord caused. They also show the memories of the harm they've caused in other countries."

"The Chinese are one of the oldest countries that practice magic, and they go to a lot of trouble to make sure their children learn how Horcruxes work and how to destroy them. They're not the only ones, but there are dozens of countries who are afraid to teach them, while some deem them 'dark' and as a result, the people in those countries are the ones most likely to have someone create a Horcrux," Violet explained.

"And Britain is one of them," Adam observed.

It wasn't a question, but Violet answered it like one. "Yes. Many countries in Europe are nervous about teaching anything like the Horcruxes at their schools, and you can't blame them. But some of them do. Quite a few of them have learnt the hard way that the best way to deal with Horcruxes is to know about them, but if you ever want a country so stupid and blind, its Britain. The Ministry is so lazy when it comes to researching magic that's so ancient they've labelled a great deal of it as dark. To make matters worse, Dumbledore has made it easier for people like Voldemort to come across old magic no-one really understands, and that's where things go wrong. Voldemort may have learnt about the ritual by accident, but it was Dumbledore's fault for not making sure the students understood the risks; I doubt any wannabe Dark Lord seeking immortality would want to split his soul, and magic, and risk it all being drained away."

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Adam was surprised when the potion was revealed to be childishly simple and he brought it up with Violet on the night of the full moon. The woman had told him that the potion was simple because, in Ancient Egypt, the country being so arid had made it very hard for more complex roots and herbs to be grown. He had been waiting for three days while Violet had gathered the ingredients, preparing the cauldron and burning runes into the basin with her wand. When the night of the ritual came, the potion was bubbling nicely with a silver necklace in the cauldron as the light from the moon shone down on them both. The potion had been soaking the amulet for two days now, and on the night of the full-moon, the ritual was ready. The boy watched silently as Violet placed some white and dark red crystals in carefully chosen spots in a circle around the cauldron.

"What are they for?"

"They're magical crystals, they create a focal point for the ritual," she explained before she moved back to the cauldron. Violet took Adam's hands into her own, and together they began chanting the Ancient Egyptian spell, holding their wand over the cauldron where the amulet was waiting. They chanted the spell for five minutes when they both felt a tugging on their magic as the ritual began to work. The locket containing the Horcrux was the first to go. The physical casing for the Horcrux shook angrily as the soul fragment tried in vain to fight the effects, but it was hopeless and there was a terrible scream as the soul piece flew into the amulet in the potion.

To Violet and Adam's mutual surprise, they felt as if their skulls were being ripped open, and they watched as two small shards of Voldemort's soul shot of their heads and flew into the cauldron.

"Violet, what-?" Adam asked.

"Keep chanting, we have to keep the chanting going and keep the ritual strong," she hissed and she kept the chant going.

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Violet sighed as she thought about what happened next.

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The ritual had taken over an hour and a half to go before the amulet had collected all of the soul pieces. The largest piece was Voldemort himself, and it flew into the amulet screaming and threatening both her and Adam all the way - it never failed to amaze Violet with how stupid the local Dark Lord was; he had been torn out of his body forcefully, and he couldn't break free despite probably fighting every inch of the way to the amulet, and yet he still thought threats would get him what he wanted.

When the ritual was over and no more pieces of Voldemort's soul flew towards them, Violet and Adam suddenly collapsed to the ground and fell asleep. Violet woke up first, feeling physically exhausted and weak. Spying their wands on the grass, she picked them up and pocketed them before she picked Adam up. It wasn't exactly the magical way to do something, but she was so physically tired and she hadn't brought out any potions that could boost her strength because she had spent all of her time preparing the potion and the ritual.

Carrying Adam was a chore, but she managed it through by the time she got him back to the house she had to find the energy to go back outside and gather up the cauldron, the crystals and the amulet. The amulet went straight inside a lead box. Heading for the potions cupboard, she got out a few potions and downed them quickly, and felt her strength come back, but she still sat on the couch and went to sleep.

When she woke up she found Adam looking at her funnily. "How come you had one of Voldemort's Horcruxes in your head?" he asked.

Violet had had no intention of revealing her secret to Adam even if he deserved to hear it, but he had seen too much for her to keep it secret. "I didn't want to tell you this," she began, deciding that this was a good thing since she'd been holding it inside her for years. "My name is Violet Cantrell, but my birth name is Violet Lily Potter."

Adam gasped, but before he could utter a word she interrupted. "I was your sister."

"What do you mean you were my sister? You are my sister-," Adam began but she interrupted him again. "I disowned myself from the Potter family after I found a marriage contract between myself and your piggy friend, Ronald."

"You were contracted to Ron?" Adam gasped before he shook his head. "I don't get this. You're not making sense."

Violet sighed. "Okay. I was four years old when we were attacked on Halloween, and before you ask no I don't remember much, and I'm not going to tell you since it's not relevant now. But one minute I was with loving parents, the next I was living in a cupboard under the stairs and forced to be a slave to Vernon and Petunia Dursley."

"Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon? Mum and dad have told me about them, they say they're the worst magic haters there are," Adam said in horror.

"They are. They have this desire to be normal above anything else," Violet said, "they don't realise that normal people don't put children into cupboards and mentally abuse them. I was there for three years while the filthy muggles told me magic didn't exist. I knew differently, I had been growing up with magic for three years of my life, so I was aware it existed. I wasn't going to let two filthy, powerless, inferior muggles tell me differently."

Violet took a deep breath, seeing the look on her 'brother's face, and knew she was scaring him. "Anyway, I found a way to escape and I headed into muggle London. If I could've done, I would've gone back to the Wizarding world. I spent two months on the streets of London, learning how to be strong before I allowed myself to be taken into a children's home. Professor McGonagall told me about the magical world, unaware I knew about it already, and I learnt about my family on my second visit to Gringotts. I also found out I was 'Killed in Action' and yet there was a marriage contract, made by Albus Dumbledore himself."

"Dumbledore knew you were alive?" Adam gaped. He had been listening with horror as the story went on, but he was so taken aback by it he remained silent.

"Yeah, he did. He placed me with the Dursleys. I had the goblins check me out, see if there were any blocks on my mind or my magic, and I found a dozen bindings. I had them removed and I disowned myself from the family to escape the contract."

Adam looked at her in horror. "You didn't have to do that," he whispered. "You could've contacted mum and dad, they'd have sorted it out and made Dumbledore pay for what he'd done."

"I could've done," Violet nodded in agreement. "But then again I didn't know what Dumbledore would've done if I revealed what he'd done to me. I wanted to murder the old bastard but in my own way. I also didn't know how Lily and James would've reacted if I'd revealed myself. I also didn't know what others would have done. I value my independence. I had plans for my life, plans which other people could interfere with. Besides I was frightened of the marriage contract."

"I changed my name formerly to Violet Cantrell, and I entered Ravenclaw house at Hogwarts. Everyone thought I was a muggle-born, and since I'd dyed my hair, no one identified me as Lily Potter's daughter," Violet went on, deliberately calling herself Lily's daughter to soothe her 'brother's' feelings.

Adam seemed mollified a little, but he had to ask something important. "But why didn't you tell me when I came to Hogwarts?"

Violet chuckled. "I didn't know if you knew about me," she lied; she had had no intention of telling Adam or her 'parents' anything. She liked her life as it was, and being taken back by her parents would've meant she would never have become a black widow. "Besides, I did keep an eye on you. I might've disowned myself from the family, but that meant nothing to me. I was a little annoyed about that business with the dragon in your first year; surely you could've come up with a better idea than that? Using an invisibility cloak, not burning the note? Why did you keep it, were you planning on framing it? But when I left I focused on my career path, a curse-breaker."

Adam listened to the story and he was silent for a good three minutes before he looked back up at her. "Were you ever going to tell me what happened?" he asked.

"You mean in general, or while you were with me? I don't know. In general, I had planned to just be another casualty of the first war. Something for the masses to realise the fame that follows you and the rest of the Potter family were more of a curse than a blessing," Violet replied, "I know it sounds cruel, but it was for a good reason. In any case, if I had told you then the Weasels may have tried to enforce the marriage contract, whether it was destroyed or not. I couldn't let that happen. While you were with me….. I didn't know I had one of those Horcruxes in my head."

She was telling the truth. She had learnt occlumency during her first couple of years at Hogwarts. But when Voldemort returned, she had developed terrible headaches that she blocked off with her occlumency barriers, and she used magical devices to ensure her barriers remained up.

Violet could see that Adam still wasn't happy about her story. "What happens now?" he asked. "Are you going to wipe my memory, send me back to my parents and my two sisters who have grown up hearing you're dead?"

Violet bit her lip, inwardly she was furious at Adam for pushing this down her throat. "I don't know," she confessed.

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In the present day, Violet snorted as she remembered how she had crept into her brother's bedroom with her wand outstretched. She had been tossing and turning in her bed for hours, trying to fall asleep but failing because they had both raised good points. A part of Violet wanted some kind of relationship with her former parents, but another part was frightened they might do something stupid despite the disownment.

They might interfere with her life, or inspire others to do the same. If anyone in the magical world found out about her plans to ensnare muggles with love potions and then kill them for money or dose them up to reveal their secrets then she would probably be sentenced to life imprisonment.

And even if she did let them know, she didn't know what they'd do if they found out she was their daughter and had deliberately disowned herself simply because two fools had decided to play games with her life.

Violet stood above her brother for an hour, trying to decide when she was surprised when he suddenly asked her in a tired voice.

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"If you're going to do it then do it, I won't fight you."

"How long have you been awake?"

"All the time. I couldn't sleep, it doesn't help when your 'sister' can't sleep either, and tosses and turns in the next room," Adam replied.

Cursing the thinness of the walls, Violet sighed. "I have spent my entire life since that night trying to be independent. And now…. I want to keep that independence, but I do feel bad about walking away from them."

She didn't say anything about wanting to become a femme fatale. They probably wouldn't understand it.

"You know I could ask them to keep it secret," Adam suggested. "I could tell them you helped me but I discovered it by accident, and that you just want to be left alone."

"Would they listen to that?" Violet was sceptical.

"Course they will."

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Violet sighed as she remembered the meeting with the Order of the Phoenix.

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It had been a while since she had been at the school, but Hogwarts looked like how Violet remembered it. But she was astonished by the fact a war was going on and how Dumbledore had turned the school into his Headquarters, there had been no fortifications to the school. She put it out of her mind and followed Adam to the front gates and they walked inside.

The Order of the Phoenix had meetings in Dumbledore's office which was the safest place in the castle for their meetings, but Violet was amazed and annoyed by Dumbledore's significant lack of action during the war. They found Professor McGonagall just as she was about to go up into the office, and after a few minutes of surprised greetings, the professor let them into the office. She was reluctant to do that but then Violet had told her bluntly about the Horcruxes and what Dumbledore had done. Needless to say, McGonagall had not been happy about that.

When the trio made it to the office, Violet and Adam were both surprised by the sight of Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger sitting at the table.

"So you're both in the Order, are you?" Adam snapped, but Violet placed a hand on his shoulder. "Don't, they're not worth it," she replied.

By now the Order members had noticed her presence. "Who are you?"

"Why did you let someone who might be a Death Eater into our meeting where she could kill us, Minerva?"

Violet sneered at them. "Oh please," she snapped. "The world isn't divided into who is a Death Eater and who isn't. Besides would I bring this here if I were a Death Eater?"

Out of her jacket, she pulled out Slytherin's locket.

Instantly Dumbledore was on his feet, and she noticed the blackened hand. What the hell had he done? "Adam, I told you to keep it secret-," he said but Violet interrupted. "You mean the Horcruxes that moron Voldemort created?"

"Horcruxes?" Everyone turned in surprise when a young man she recognised as Bill Weasley whispered the word in shock. "Why in Merlin's name would he create one of those things-?"

"Not one, Bill. He created more than one, and this idiot," Violet gestured at Dumbledore who was frozen in surprise, "not only knew about the Horcruxes, but he sent Adam, your brother and the stupid little girl out to hunt them down and destroy them."

Bill Weasley gaped at Dumbledore. "You knew about the Horcruxes and you didn't tell me? You knew he created more than one, and you didn't tell me, a trained curse breaker who deals with these things on a daily basis? I could have drained the fucking things instead of sitting in on these meetings where you talk and talk-,"

Dumbledore looked really pale now, but Bill wasn't finished. "I learnt like all Curse-Breakers how to deal with these things. I've performed the ritual several times. Why didn't you ask for help?"

"Bill, that's no way to speak of Professor Dumbledore-," Molly Weasley shouted, but Bill ignored her. He was looking at Violet. "You've drained them?"

"Yes, all we need to do is connect the amulet to the wards and the magic of Lord Voldemort will be fed into the castle," Violet replied before she chuckled. "Ironic, the so-called heir of Slytherin will finally give something back to the school, something productive for a change that doesn't involve murdering muggle-borns."

"But the prophecy-," Dumbledore spluttered.

"Yeah, the prophecy," Adam sneered. "All these years you've poked and prodded in my life and the lives of my family, all because of that stupid poem, and now it turns out it wasn't necessary. You could have taken the memory from Slughorn forcibly where he told Riddle about the Horcruxes, instead you waited on your fucking arse all these years. You thought you knew it all, didn't you, but you were too lazy to look properly for a different solution? What did you plan to do, make me stroll up to Voldemort so he could kill me?"

When Dumbledore didn't utter a word, Adam wasn't the only Potter to lose it but Violet sent out a bang with her wand before the party could start.

"We're wasting time, we need to get to where the wards are controlled and powered so we can drain the amulet," she said.

The big black wizard in red robes held up his hand. "Who are you?"

"Violet Cantrell, I'm a Curse-Breaker like Bill Weasley," Violet replied before she twisted the knife. "I helped Adam when Weasley and Granger abandoned him."

It looked like the Potters were going to scream and shout at the suddenly awkward couple, but another bang stopped them. "The wards, please," Violet said.

The entire Order of the Phoenix went to the wardroom in the castle where the wards were controlled and regulated by a central stone. Dumbledore tried to take the amulet off Violet, but she sidestepped him, knowing he was only doing it to redeem himself while he was still alive. She could tell he was dead already from the curse that was causing his body to decay, but she wanted him to die miserably, knowing that if he had woken up and done what was necessary then perhaps this might have happened sooner.

She placed the amulet on the stone and let McGonagall and Dumbledore begin the process. The amulet glowed red for a moment, then white.

Snape suddenly let out a terrible scream and then he collapsed.

Violet suddenly laughed while the professors and other Order members raced to him as the greasy man thrashed about, screaming in agony. "Oh yeah, I forgot to mention," she began conversationally. "I've worked out why Voldemort survived that night on Halloween. The Horcruxes had nothing to do with it, it was the Dark Marks burnt into the arms of the Death Eaters that kept him alive."

"What do you mean?" Lily Potter whispered.

"Horcruxes are pieces of the soul, torn apart from the main body. They don't make you immortal at all, the idiot who creates them will still die. But Voldemort must have seen and experienced problems when he'd split his soul so many times. So he burnt Dark Marks into the arms of his followers to tap into their magic. There's nothing anyone can do for them now, they're either going to die, or they'll become squibs. Personally, I hope they become squibs, it will make them wake up and see life doesn't revolve around them," Violet explained while she looked on, unaffected by Snape's agony, but she had the impression that despite the pain the Potions Professor was listening to every word. Good. Maybe now he'd properly learn his mistakes, though it was too late for him to do anything.

"In every magical country, there have been people who tried to use the soul to attain immortality. But while the theory is sound, in practice the effects are unpredictable. Sometimes a Horcrux can make you live an extra few years, or it might slice your lifespan in half, but even if you die the magic connecting the body to the Horcrux dies out too. The Horcruxes left by witches and wizards over the years are the remains of their makers, but they've all since died. The soul pieces are worthless, they're just echoes."

"I don't know what would have happened in the long term to him, but I think Voldemort must have realised something was wrong with his magic. Maybe he was growing weak since all of the soul fragments were drawing too much of his power away from him, but in any case he created the Dark Mark after perhaps reading an account of a similar Dark Lord who'd branded his followers with a tattoo that connected their magic to him, and as long as he kept marking other people he would be alive forever. The connection to his followers is what has kept him alive all this time. I don't think Voldemort really connected the Horcruxes to his waning abilities, but when he marked his followers it no longer mattered because he could simply steal their magic in minute amounts, which explains why he was such a dangerous opponent. That kept him stable."

Violet walked over to Snape and looked down at him dispassionately. The potions master was still writhing in pain, but the worst of it was over. "You made a big mistake letting that snake-faced freak brand you, you stupid greasy haired fuck," she whispered. "No wizard in their right mind would ever allow themselves be branded by another. So much for your so-called expertise in the Dark Arts, it hasn't helped you, has it? Well, you and the rest of the fuckers he's branded won't live long enough for it to matter."

Dumbledore had standing so still he had almost appeared to be a living, pale statue as he realised what this meant. It didn't last. Moody glared at him. "I kept telling you we should be killing the Death Eaters, Albus!" he hissed angrily. "But no, you kept saying we could redeem them. Do you get it now? If one of those bastards lived then they'd bring him back to life. You and your need to forgive and forget, as if anyone would forgive the likes of Walden McNair, or Bellatrix Lestrange. You were spitting on the graves of the people they'd murdered! Now we find out they were keeping the bastard alive, all because you couldn't do what was needed!"

"I-I didn't know-," Dumbledore whispered.

Violet didn't care if this was hurting him. "Maybe you should have checked your facts instead of thinking you knew it all," she told him. "From what I've learnt you have guessed he created Horcruxes but didn't bother to find out for sure. What's worse you had a Potions professor who knew about it, but you spent so many years sitting on your backside waiting for him to come to you. You're so out of it, its pathetic. Real people don't come out and admit they made a mistake where hundreds of innocent people died for no other reason than because their murderer was a deluded fool with grandiose dreams about something that is meaningless. You should have cornered Voldemort on all sides and hit him with multiple killing curses when you suspected he had created a Horcrux. That's what some magical countries do. In countries like China, who've had experience of mad Dark Lords running around with their souls in pieces, they punish anyone who cuts off a fraction of their soul with death. It's inescapable. Others use rituals like the one Adam and I used to put them all into the amulet."

"This is why you should teach the history of Horcruxes to your children, Dumbledore; yeah, I know they're abominations, the goblins hate the things. But if you keep up your current policies, then someone desperate to live forever will come along, find a reference, dig deeper, discover the process of splitting the soul, and then make themselves vulnerable."

Sighing in exhaustion, Violet went over to Adam Potter and hugged him tightly. "See you later, kid," she whispered into his ear so only he heard what was being said.

She felt him nod into her shoulder.

It was over.

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Back in the present day, Violet pushed through the memories so she could walk over to her husband. She smiled down at him as he slept comfortably in post-coital bliss. It wouldn't be long before she was finished with him. In the meantime, she would fuck him left, right and centre in order to lull him into a false sense of security.

She had already planned his death, it would be a drink-driving accident, manipulated into his mind of course. Violet wasn't like other black widows, she didn't spend time planning her moment to occur on their wedding night. No, she preferred taking her time and getting all the fucks she could get while making sure her muggle husbands wrote their wills and left a sizeable chunk of their fortunes to her. She wasn't that greedy.

When he woke up he looked at her with a smile. "Good morning," he whispered.

Violet smiled at him, and she smoothly got on top of him and ground herself on his cock.

He groaned as she got going. Finally, she let his erect cock penetrate her quivering pussy and she moaned in pleasure before she bounced up and down on his body, going faster and faster while he moaned. Finally, he came inside her and she slid back to her part of the bed while he panted with exertion. Gently, she trailed her dainty hand over his muscled body while she used her other hand to gently caress her tight tummy. Hmm, she thought to herself. Maybe I should stop with the contraception potions I'm taking and get myself pregnant, I could do with an heiress….

The End.


	2. The Tomb Raider

Again, my thanks to White Angel of Auralon and questionablequotation for their permission and their works which inspired my work.

The Tomb Raider.

The sun was beating down on the island in the Caribbean, but for Charlotte Potter the temperature was more pleasant than the harsh, burning light and heat which had scorched the Sahara Desert all year around, though being a witch she was virtually immune since she could cast a cooling charm over her body; she could have worn winter gear in a desert and she wouldn't have cooked to death, unlike muggles.

Checking a map and a compass, Charlotte spent five minutes in one place, getting her bearings and seeing if she was in roughly the right place while using her wand to cast some detection spells, but while there were some interesting finds they weren't what she was looking for. Whenever she discovered she was in the wrong place, she would put both the compass and chart away. She would always take her position and mark it on the chart so if she decided it was appropriate in the future when she came this way again, she would know where to look, before using her wand to magically move the boat to a new location where she'd start the whole process all over again.

Charlotte had spent a week in the Caribbean waters trying to find the right place, narrowing down the possibilities before she found the right area. She had taken a boat out in all locations and had found all kinds of interesting things in the waters of the sea. But then again the underwater world was fascinating. Dressed in a swimsuit, Charlotte prepared to dive over the side of the boat but she opened a small pouch in her utility belt which carried torn up pieces of a slimy weed. Popping a piece in her mouth, she chewed on the weed while ignoring the texture in her mouth before she swallowed. She waited for a minute for the effects to begin before she gently threw herself into the sea.

While she loved Gillyweed and its properties, Charlotte absolutely hated it when she ate the stuff because she always felt as though her body was being torn apart while her flippers appeared in her hands and feet while the gill slits opened on her neck. Once she was sure that she was breathing okay, Charlotte dove down into the deep water. She had learnt to swim at a young age when she'd realised she had wanted to become an archaeologist, but she had also wanted to become an adventuress. She had trained to become a diver, she had worked with snorkels and SCUBA diving equipment.

But diving with gillyweed… unimpeded by diving equipment while the only thing preventing you from staying down here for long periods was knowing the effects lasted only an hour, that was truly magical.

Her limbs felt rubbery, her skin felt smoother than normal, and her eyes had been altered slightly to help her see better in the saltwater. Her rubbery limbs and webbed fingers and feet allowed her to move with incredible speed. It didn't take long for her to find what she was looking for on the seabed.

A ship, made completely from pure magical crystal though she knew it had actually been grown, not built. The ship was designed simply, like a schooner from the 18th century rather than built along the same hull shape of a war gallery or a Galleon. Charlotte grinned with savage triumph as she swam slowly towards the ship. It was resting on the bottom of the sea, its sails gently undulating in the current, completely and perfectly preserved but then she had known it would be. Magically constructed tools and ships didn't rot or rust like muggle technology. They didn't get wrecked either, she knew that as well. This ship was waiting on the bottom of the sea for someone to reactivate it and give it a new mission to explore. Charlotte swam closer to the ship, raising her hand to reverently run her hands across the hull, and she smiled in amazement and awe as she felt the slow and gentle vibration reverberating through the hull of the ancient ship, reminding her of the purr of a cat.

It took a surprisingly long time for Charlotte to remember she hadn't just come down here to study the wreck but to plunder it. Taking out her wand, a custom made one, she scanned the crystalline hull, mumbling under her breath in Latin as she waved the wand carefully over it. She was trying to discover what secrets the hull contained, but she had to stop when she saw the sudden glow that winked on and off rippling across the crystal.

Charlotte pulled her wand back and grimaced. The ship was absorbing the magic of the spells she was casting. She had already known the ancient Wizard ships used to explore land, sea and air were designed to absorb the ambient magic around them to fuel them and to comfortably house and support a crew. But she hadn't expected her spells to be absorbed as well. She put her wand away quickly.

Swimming gently she surveyed the deck. The masts and sails weren't designed to propel the ship, not like muggle ships around the same period. They were designed to catch what magic was in the air and add to the already prodigious amount of magic was stored in its hull, like a giant battery.

Ships like this were armed, too. There were 'cannons' made from metal and wood that acted like giant wands that blasted all kinds of spells at whatever obstacle or enemy was endangering the crew.

Charlotte didn't touch any of the cannons, she didn't know how they worked, whether it was by incantation or silent casting, or there might be something on this ship that controlled them, she didn't know and that made her cautious. She had encountered dozens of ancient magical artefacts that responded differently to touch, and she didn't want to blast the seabed by accident; the muggles may not know this ship was here thanks to the spells and runes imprinted in the ship - she knew there were imprints - by its owners and creators, but they might notice an explosion and investigate.

Besides if she lurked around here too long then that would mean trouble with the Caribbean wizards and she didn't want that. She already had a reputation as a treasure seeker, she didn't want to get into trouble again, not right now.

Gently exploring the quarter and poop decks, she entered the Captain's cabin, not at all surprised by how large the interior dimensions of the room were. It was common magical practice to enlarge the space of a room if it was too cramped, a contrast to muggles who just learnt to accept the confines of a ship or a plane. No witch or wizard in their right mind would accept that. Charlotte looked around the room admiringly, enjoying the rich and magically preserved silk and taffeta curtains and the rich wooden panels. The sheer size reminded her a palatial bedroom than a ship's cabin.

Anyway, she swam towards the chart table and examined it. There was a book on the table that she flicked open and she smiled at all the charts locked away inside it. Every time she opened one of the pages, the map came out and spread across the surface of the table, and unlike muggle technology where you had to look for your position, there was a red dot that symbolised the position of the ship.

She had come across these magical chart books before. As the ship moved, they magically recorded everything around them on special sheets of parchment. The captain and the crew also recorded their experiences in diary form but then again everything was recorded in the book, which was transcendent in nature as well.

It was also what Charlotte had come for.

Picking it up once she had checked the book for any curses and shoving it into her satchel, Charlotte swam out of the cabin.

She stopped when she saw three others using gillyweed, just like her - two wizards, one witch. All of them had their wands out.

"Give us the chartbook, Charlotte," the wizard demanded without preamble.

"No, Ganymede," Charlotte replied, wondering not for the first time while her fellow treasure hunter was called that. Ganymede and his other associates were treasure hunters like her, but instead of finding treasures for themselves they did the next best thing - stalk one of their competitors and take the treasure from them, usually at wand point after injuring them.

Charlotte had met these two twice already, the first time she had lost her treasure, and cost her thousands of galleons. The second time she had barely managed to hold on to the treasure she'd taken from a tomb. She wasn't going to lose this one.

With a thought, her wand snapped into her hand, and after she cast a spell over herself to stop Ganymede and one of his hench-bitches stealing the book she'd just taken, Charlotte's mind raced as she tried to consider what her options were. She knew she couldn't outrace them with the gillyweed; the emergency supply she kept in her pouch might keep her going for a little while longer, that was it.

Charlotte could fight them, she was a wickedly fast duelist and she kept her skills in top notch condition by practising each day. But Ganymede and his bitches wouldn't be as good as they were if they didn't have virtually identical skills. But then her eyes caught sight if the magic cannons on the deck.

If she could just…..YES! The cannons could help her, but she realised she didn't know how they worked.

Ganymede was shaking his head in mock pity while her mind raced trying to find a solution. "Charlotte, Charlotte, Charlotte," he said in a voice of genuine exasperation. "Why can't you see we're doing you a favour? You find the treasure, we take it off you and sell it for you. What's the problem with that?"

"The part where we want to sell it for ourselves," Charlotte replied, "and we don't see or get a sickle for our efforts."

She hadn't meant to reply, but truthfully she thought he needed the reply even if he wouldn't listen. Suddenly she snapped her wand to her hand, deciding to forget about the cannons for the time being, silently firing one spell after another at Ganymede and his bitches while she used her manoeuvrability in the water to her advantage.

But they were as manoeuvrable as she was thanks to taking gillyweed themselves. It was an interesting little fight between the four of them, all of them using silently casted spells in the water. Charlotte had never duelled with Ganymede before now, but as she fought him she realised something about him. He was a good fighter, but his spell use wasn't exactly imaginative or creative. Most wizard thieves who stole from other wizards and witches who got into a fight used transfiguration spells and charm work which was household stuff. Charlotte herself used something similar because she didn't believe in using high powered curses or spells that were lethal. Oh, she didn't hesitate to use them, she just didn't believe in the logic of draining her reserves.

Ganymede and one of his henchwomen were like that. They fired spells like they were straight out of a spell book, but they couldn't innovate. They didn't fire any spells to blindside her.

Unfortunately, their friend could. Charlotte had been the duelling champion at Illvermorny when she'd been a student there, and she had learnt that the best way to fight multiple opponents was to blindside them as best she could while fighting on one of them before switching to another. But Ganymede's woman was good, not brilliant but good enough. It was two minutes into the fight Charlotte realised she was trying to make her make a mistake, fire overpowered spells and get exhausted enough to make a mistake.

Charlotte had to fight down the temptation to give the bitch what she wanted, but as the fight wore on and she used a spell chain using spells learnt at the ages of 11 and 12 with a few more powerful spells thrown in for good measure while all the time moving quickly to avoid their spell chains and avoiding them from speeding towards her and taking her unawares to snatch the satchel off her. Charlotte had to take out the diver's knife she'd brought down with her as an additional weapon when one of the bitches and Ganymede himself tried to overpower her. She growled in annoyance when Ganymede tackled her for the fourth time running and they struggled, moving around and around in a corkscrew. They were moving so fast Charlotte didn't know for sure where his bitches were but she found herself not caring.

She had never fought hand to hand with Ganymede before, but as they fought she found him rather pathetic. Charlotte had physically trained her body to be stronger, especially after seeing witches and wizards struggle whenever something happened to their wands. But her fighting skills weren't much use when she and the wizard were struggling underwater, but they were keeping him from taking the satchel.

"Why do you lot always have to be difficult?" Ganymede was saying with open contempt, no longer trying to be persuasive. He started talking but Charlotte didn't bother listening to him, she no longer gave a damn when she realised that Ganymede, the so-called cunning treasure hunter, had just made a fatal mistake.

Her hand with the jagged diver's knife flashed out. "Shut the fuck up!" she snapped, feeling suddenly light-headed; the gillyweed, it was wearing off. But she pushed past that realisation to focus on Ganymede, who had instinctively thrown a hand to cover the wound on his throat as the dark red blood gushed into the water. "Can't you see I'm not even listening? I mean, did you really think I was going to just hand over the book to you and go on my merry way? Fuck that! Here's some advice, when you're reincarnated, don't become a treasure hunter. AVADA KEDAVRA!"

The two were so close that the killing curse hit Ganymede at point-blank range.

Ganymede, the most hated wizard treasure hunter, was dead.

But the sight of their boss (boyfriend?) suddenly being killed made both of the other witches fire even more powerful spells. Charlotte didn't have any time for this. She didn't want to spend the next few minutes the gillyweeed had left fighting these two. She closed her eyes and focused on moving her body via apparation close to where they were, and suddenly she was right behind them.

The two witches were stunned when they realised what she'd done, but before they could do anything she had jammed her wand very close to their eyes. The tip exploded with bright, white, blinding light that dazzled them.

When the two witches vision cleared, they were both prepared for a battle but they were surprised when they realised Charlotte was gone.

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Wand pointing upwards towards where the boat was waiting on the surface, Charlotte had to hide the grimace on her face which was threatening to break out as the webbing that had grown between her toes and fingers receded into her flesh, and the gill slits in her neck and the lenses protecting her eyes from the seawater burnt as they receded and the rubberiness of her limbs vanished. By the time she popped out of the water, she was returned to normal.

Charlotte looked around quickly in case Ganymede's friends had worked out where she'd gone and had followed her up to the surface. Fortunately, they weren't nearby, and a quick look told her the boat she'd used was still here. It was next to a larger boat that Ganymede and his witches had used.

Charlotte panted, she was exhausted but she pushed that aside and swam gently towards her boat. Throwing the satchel into the boat, Charlotte dragged herself over and landed gently on the bottom. She pulled herself up, promising herself she would lie down for the majority of the trip back, and she tapped her wand on the side of the boat and it sped back towards the harbour.

As the boat travelled, Charlotte wrapped her arms around the satchel, smiling in happiness. She had done it. She had grabbed the Map book and she'd kept it from being snatched by Ganymede. She wasn't completely bothered about his bitches telling anyone about what she'd done; Ganymede was wanted in several countries, and he didn't have any family as far as she knew.

But it didn't matter. Charlotte had the book, and centuries of magical knowledge was in her grasp.

She was going to make a small fortune.

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It had been months since she had been back in her home country, but Charlotte felt that the 'humid' weather was nothing compared to spending weeks in Sudan or in Egypt but she smiled as she approached the platforms where the portal to the magical side of King's Cross train station was kept. She was looking forward to some good old English cuisine, though she'd probably still miss the simple fare she had become accustomed to in other countries.

Charlotte had sold the Map Book, and she had earned a large amount of cash which she'd put into her bank account. Afterwards, she had spent her time sightseeing and exploring the Caribbean islands, exploring their magical and non-magical histories, diving and sunbathing. She had been receiving the international newspapers, and she knew the war in Britain was heating up, and there were already calls in the MACUSA and many nations of the ICW to launch a pre-emptive strike against Voldemort. Charlotte didn't see them doing that just yet - they knew that if they did then Voldemort and his depraved followers would attack them. The ICW and the MACUSA were already mobilising for war. Charlotte knew from her own time in the MACUSA that if there was one country that truly hated it when the State of Secrecy was being threatened, it was America.

She had decided to return to Britain and take a break after spending the past year and a half breaking into tombs and raiding treasure, and going on digs. Charlotte only hoped her parents didn't expect her to fight. It was funny, but the British wizards seemed to think their war was bigger than it was. That was no surprise since the war encompassed their country, but Charlotte had seen dozens of magical countries in her life. She knew that Voldemort wouldn't last in any of them, oh sure he could recruit a few to his cause but the chance of him recruiting too many people was hard to believe.

Voldemort didn't have a good reputation. Oh sure, dozens of witches and wizards would follow him either out of simple fear, want of power, or just because they wanted to kill a few people but Voldemort was a rabid dog compared to other Dark Lords who had the common sense to not lash out needlessly.

But in the meantime, she would be delighted to spend time with her little brother.

Charlotte's smile faded as she caught sight of the newspaper headlines, but she was surprised to see the headline that told of Dumbledore's death and funeral at Hogwarts. She had heard about Dumbledore's death of course, but in other countries like France and Egypt, it was just another piece of news that didn't shatter walls like it did in her home country. Albus Dumbledore was one of many powerful witches and wizards throughout the world, but over the years his reputation had faltered for one reason or another.

But so too had her brother. Charlotte grimaced as she remembered the looks of mistrust on the faces of some of her British work colleagues since they received the Daily Prophet and believed the lies about her brother and her family; if she had had the time then she would have sent a nasty letter to Cornelius Fudge and cursed him with something so painful he would have retracted his stories without hesitation. No-one bullied or hurt her brother, not while she was around.

Her grin returned when she caught sight of her parents and her little sister. Four-year-old Jessica Potter was jumping up and down in excitement, and Charlotte guessed she would try to con her brother into playing dolls with her. Slowly Charlotte walked up behind them but kept herself within clear sight of the Hogwarts express when the train pulled into the station. She grinned when she saw her brother get off the train, but her smile changed when she caught sight of his friends. Charlotte had never liked Hermione Granger or Ron Weasley, one was lazy and greedy, the other too much of a sycophant to be a good friend.

Charlotte knew her mother and father weren't really fond of them either. She knew her mother was annoyed by Hermione's constant need to degrade the magical world and not take anything someone said onboard. In the case of Weasley, it was because of an unpleasant meeting between themselves and the Weasley parents - Molly Weasley had gotten it into her head, Merlin knew how or why she thought it would be a good idea, that she could set up a marriage contract with Percy Weasley.

Her parents said no. The stupid woman had persisted and then her father had threatened her with trouble, something the woman's weakling husband had quickly put his foot down, but it had made Molly really unpopular with their family. When Daniel had told them he was friends with their youngest son, Ron, Lily and James and she had kept an eye on the boy and his siblings to make sure they didn't do anything really stupid.

Daniel walked towards them, holding his owl Hedwig in her cage as he led the way to their parents, his eyes searching for his family in the crowd. Dumbledore's death had really shaken the population of the country, and now Charlotte would be very surprised if the parents on the platform were hoping it hadn't happened.

She pushed that thought aside and walked close to where her family were standing while keeping an eye out if anyone who recognised her was nearby.

Charlotte could see her brother…. and his friends…..in the distance, but he hadn't seen them yet, he was too busy getting through the throng surrounding him.

She grinned when he did notice them. "MUM! DAD! JESS! CHAZ!" He yelled, rushing towards them excitedly, his earlier melancholic mood forgotten as she raced towards his family.

Lily, James and Jess were confused, but they turned around and they cheered with delight when they saw their daughter/big sister. Charlotte Marlene Potter laughed while she was squeezed in a four-way hug from her siblings and her parents.

"Okay, okay, you can let go now."

"Not a chance!" Lily smiled as she peppered her daughter's face with kisses, making her protest while little Jess squeezed her middle.

"Why didn't you tell us you were coming home?" James asked.

Charlotte gave a small smile. "I wanted it to be a surprise," she said. "And I wanted to see Dan as he got off the train."

The Potters were interrupted when Ron and Hermione approached. "We'll see you over the summer then mate, about the mission?" Weasley asked, making Hermione nudge him. Charlotte narrowed her eyes at the exchange, and she glanced at her parents but she shook her head. She wanted to know what this 'mission' was, but she knew they couldn't ask them here, not with Weasley and Granger here, never mind everyone rushing to their families.

The two wouldn't allow it, they were so drawn to the idea of keeping secrets like the 'great Albus Dumbledore' they'd be afraid to even think about them.

Charlotte grimaced at the two openly for going along with Dumbledore's communication blackout not so long ago. Did they really think Voldemort would be hacking into the Floo networks?

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Later on in her bedroom which felt more like a hotel room than anything else, Charlotte was getting ready to go down for dinner. She had taken a long hot shower and got dressed in a pair of slacks and a t-shirt and simple trainers with her wand holstered on her wrist, waiting to be snapped back into place.

She couldn't believe her brother. Ever since he had started at Hogwarts (she had hoped he'd come with her to Illvermorny, but no such luck), Dan seemed to have become a different person. He had talked his parents into allowing Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger into coming to dinner tonight. Why? He knew his family didn't exactly like the two teenagers, but she was sure it had something to do with this mission.

There was a knock on the door and she flicked her wand at it to open. Standing in the doorway, wearing a shirt and jeans was Lily. "Hi, mum," she greeted.

Lily smiled back but there was a troubled expression on her face as she walked in and sat on the bed. "We're glad you're back," she whispered. "We needed some good news, especially now with Dumbledore's death. He had an overinflated view of himself, and contrary to what many believed he didn't really do anything to mitigate the Death Eater's actions. But I know one thing; they will be launching all kinds of attacks now they think they're invincible."

"I'd like to see them try to launch an attack abroad, especially in America," Charlotte replied. "The MACUSA really doesn't like it when someone interferes with the Statute; Illvermorny still teaches the historic account of Grindelwald's time there, and what he said and did. The MACUSA don't want any of their children following his footsteps. His time, as well as Newt Scaramander's arrival, nearly caused one hell of a breakout."

Charlotte licked her lips. "Mum, what do you think this mission is, do you think Dumbledore had something to do with it?"

Lily was a member of the Order of the Phoenix along with her husband and her friends. She had been to the meetings and knew what Dumbledore had said. "Yeah," she replied immediately. Her expression became more pensive and worried. "Dumbledore believes in a prophecy that links Voldemort to your brother. Don't ask what it says, he never said anything about what he said despite pressure nearly every year, though after his fifth year he told us that Voldemort believes he's a threat to his power. That's the reason Voldemort keeps trying to come after us and Dumbledore kept trying to keep control over us like he did when he tried to pressure us into giving you to Petunia and Vernon."

Charlotte's expression turned stormy at the reminder, but it quickly changed. "How's Dan doing, is he trying to learn what he can to survive?"

"That's the weird part. He knows Voldemort's coming after him, but despite me and your father, as well as Sirius and Remus, teaching him what we can to shorten the gap between him and Voldemort's power and knowledge level, he doesn't seem to want to learn," Lily replied, her expression showing distress.

Charlotte couldn't believe it. "Dan is believed to be this 'chosen one," she air-quoted the name, "and he refuses to learn what he can to survive?"

"I don't get it, he's become so lazy and apathetic to his studies as the years have gone by. What's even more surprising was he used to love reading books about magic, now he barely touches them," Lily replied.

Charlotte narrowed her eyes. A few possibilities entered her mind but she didn't dare voice them just yet, not until she had some proof. "I don't know what to say. Prophecies, tea-leaves, they're all mumbo-jumbo to me."

"I believe you. But Voldemort and several others believe it," Lily pointed out.

When dinner came by and Ron and Hermione arrived, Charlotte was showing some photographs to Jess about some of the places she'd visited. She put them away when the two teens entered the dining room. Unlike other mansions, Potter Manor had two dining rooms - one for formal occasions, the other for the family. Ron and Hermione arrived in the dining room, Ron handing Dan a box of badly wrapped chocolate cookies.

The food appeared magically on the table and Charlotte used her wand to levitate some of the tureens and platters over to her so she could take a little of everything before she levitated it back.

Jess clapped her hands when Charlotte levitated some of them over to her. "Ooh, I can't wait 'til I'm learning how to do that!" she laughed.

Charlotte grinned at her sister, but before she could say anything Hermione Granger said in her bossiest voice. "You can't do that," she said self-importantly, "magic is not to be used outside of school."

The sight of her little sister's stricken face angered Charlotte at this pompous girl's attitude. "That might be true if you were living outside the magical world, Granger," she got out, "but here and in other magical houses, where everyone uses magic, and the wards use magic, the Ministry can't pin down who exactly is using a wand. Don't ever speak to my little sister like that again."

Hermione pulled back at the anger in Charlotte's face, and she opened her mouth to say something but Lily spoke up. "That goes for me as well," she said, gazing at Hermione sternly. "You're our guest in this house. That doesn't give you the right to tell us the laws the Ministry comes out with."

"Well said," James said, looking at Hermione with an expression the bushy-haired girl couldn't place, but Charlotte could. Jess was the baby of the family, and if anyone hurt her then that idiot would be in for a world of hurt.

Dan spoke up at that point, but to the surprise of everyone at the table not a member of the family, he didn't defend Jess as well.

"Oi, don't talk that way to Hermione-," he said.

"How else do you expect us to speak to her then?" Charlotte snapped, making a mental note to grab the boy and scan him with her wand. Out of all of them, Dan had spent more time with Jess when it had been time for her to leave for Illvermorny. What had changed?

"She's my friend!"

"And Jess is your sister," Lily whispered, her disappointment clear in her eyes. "Family comes first."

Jess suddenly said, "Yucky!"

Throughout all of this Ron Weasley had been eating like there was going to be a famine the next day. Jess had been watching the boy dig into the meal and seemed to be on the verge of pushing his head into the plate to get all the bits. The sounds and the sight of Ron's food covered face made Charlotte sick to look at.

Still angry by what Dan had just said, Lily flicked her wand at Ron and the boy was shoved back sharply. "Hey, what the fuck are you doing?" Weasley shouted, bits of food flying out of his mouth. But when the red-headed moron saw his unimpressed audience he closed his mouth.

Lily's expression was full of disgust.

Charlotte turned to Dan. "What's this mission, then?"

Dan was about to open his mouth, but Hermione instantly spoke over him. "You can't tell anyone, Dan," the bushy haired girl said.

The sheer arrogance of the girl surprised all three adults. Now fully restraining the urge to curse the girl, James spoke up now, "I think you'll find we can know. We're members of the Order of the Phoenix, and despite our personal issues with Dumbledore, we would never have betrayed the good of the Wizarding world. For the last time, what is the mission?"

With each word that came out of her dad's mouth, Charlotte became convinced no matter what happened her brother would follow Granger's lead, so she flicked her wand in his direction.

"Dumbledore," Dan began, ignoring his friend's attempts to shut him up when they realised what he was about to say, "wants us to hunt down and destroy Voldemort's Horcruxes in the coming year so the war would be won for the Light."

Hermione was on her feet before anyone could blink. "Dan-!" she shouted, appalled he would give in so easily but Charlotte leapt out of her seat, furious. "Horcruxes? Voldemort created Horcruxes? And that old moron didn't say or do anything about them? And you two," she added, looking at Hermione and her brother furiously, "you're helping him cover up the whole thing. I think its time for you," she glared at Hermione, "and you, "she fixed her glare on Ron now, "to get out of our house."

"What?"

"But we haven't had dessert," Weasley protested.

Lily looked quizzically at her daughter. "Char, what's going on?"

Charlotte ignored the two and turned to her parents. "Mum, dad, we need to talk without them here," she said pleadingly. Charlotte knew she was overstepping the limit but Granger and Weasley needed to go. When the two stubborn teens refused to do as they were told and Dan himself was protesting loudly, Charlotte became so tired and flicked her wand, banishing the two of them to the fireplace. With another flick of her wand and verbal call to the fireplace to send them back to the Burrow (what in the name of Merlin had possessed the Weasley family to give their home that ridiculous name, the elder Potter child would never understand), and Charlotte took a deep breath.

She turned to face her family, but her brother got in the way first. "Why did you do that?!"

Charlotte sighed, they didn't have time for any of this right now. She simply waved her wand again and magically threw her brother into a chair and bound and silenced him.

Lily felt this was going too far. "Charlotte Marlene Potter, what in the name of Merlin are you doing?!"

"Give me a second, mum," Charlotte replied. "I need to check something."

Charlotte had come to suspect something was truly wrong with Daniel's mind, but until now she'd never really had the opportunity to check her brother to find out what was going on with him. She flicked her wand again, saying clearly an incantation for her mother and father's benefit, but she ignored them when they started in surprise.

The results of her scanning spell made her draw back, a string of curses in a dozen languages.

Lily didn't know what her daughter had said, but she had guessed the content. "Charlotte!"

"Mum, I need a second opinion," Charlotte ignored her mother's chiding tone. "Could you please scan him, find out if what I've found is the truth?"

"Why, what's wrong with him?" Little Jess asked.

Lily went over and looked questioningly at her elder daughter, her heart pounding at the look on her face while she pulled her own wand out and began chanting in Latin while Charlotte went back to Jess and James.

James looked at Charlotte questioningly. "What did you find?" he whispered.

Charlotte closed her eyes, but they shot open when Lily screamed in fury. "How many potions has he got in his system?!"

"Dozens," Charlotte replied darkly. "He has love potions, control potions, loyalty potions, and Merlin knows what else." She ignored Jess's gasp and her father's growl of anger. Jess had only just started learning how to make potions to prepare her for school when she was old enough; Lily had trained all three of her children in magic with James' help. But the littlest Potter was no-where near the level of how to make complicated potions but she was aware of potions that were dangerous.

"We're going to have to flush him."

Lily nodded.

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The flushing happened to take all night. Hating herself for the necessity but knowing it had to happen, Charlotte used a spell to force-feed her brother the potion needed while she used a stone bucket transfigured from one of the pebbles outside the house. The stone would last for a long time and would be stable enough for this.

In the meantime, Charlotte and her mother had to sit up all night and take care of Dan while he was puking his guts up into the transfigured bucket while they scanned the vomit to find out what kind of potions was in his system. It was a growing list. James was relegated to helping soothe her brother and keep an eye on Jess.

"Any luck?" James whispered as he watched Charlotte scan the latest amount of puke. James was a talented wizard in transfiguration and defence, but like his father, he was lousy at potions and had never developed a knack for them despite working hard to achieve good grades to become an Auror.

Lily was the potion expert of the family, and Charlotte had inherited her talent.

Not for the first time, he was pleased he had allowed her to go to school abroad instead of putting up with the below par standard at Hogwarts now.

She had truly become a proficient witch.

Charlotte looked up at her father, her eyes dark with fury and exhaustion as she held up a sheet of parchment. "He doesn't just have Amortentia in his system, he has other kinds of love potion in his system as well, some of them mild, some not. But the Amortentia has definitely beaten the other potions, but its a miracle they didn't poison him. He also has loyalty, compulsion and distrust potions in his system as well. Don't ask who they're geared to, dad. We won't know until we're finished. There are other potions in his system which are just as bad. Someone at Hogwarts has deliberately stopped him learning anything. We won't know for sure if we've got them all until Dan's stopped puking."

James had been growing steadily angrier as he listened to every word his equally angry daughter came out with. It was forbidden to feed potions of these kinds to children, particularly when they were growing up since it could stunt their magical growth, but clearly, someone didn't care about those laws.

"I think we can guess who the loyalty potions are geared to," James observed as he thought it through. "Your mother and I lost our trust in Dumbledore a long time ago when he tried to force you and your little sister to live with your muggle Aunt and Uncle so we could focus on Daniel. I still can't grasp what in the name of Merlin the old fool was thinking, but the restraining order we put on him and his friends and the other steps we took to protect you two in case Dumbledore tried to go too far. It shocked us both when Dan started talking about Dumbledore like he was Merlin himself, but we had so many things to take care of."

"It's not your fault, dad," Charlotte murmured, her eyes burning with rage as she remembered what that old fucker had tried to do to her and her sister. Dumbledore had gotten it into his head that he could make her parents give her and Jess away like they were old clothes to flog at a charity shop. Charlotte had already met the Dursleys on one of her mother's annual pilgrimages to their home. She hated the Dursleys. They were disgusting people, so obsessed with 'normality' they couldn't see that normal person did not care about how many cars you had, and what you did for a living.

There were two things that made things worse. Firstly the Dursleys had not hesitated to be nasty to her and her mother, they had openly called her a freak simply because she was a witch. When Dumbledore had come up with this little scheme for his supposed 'greater good,' she didn't know if he knew what the Dursley family were like, but she didn't care. All she had in her mind at the time was when the stupid muggles jeered at her, insulted her, and Vernon Dursley looked on chortling with glee as Dudley bullied her before she lost her temper and he was thrown backwards. If her mother hadn't cursed the filthy muggle when he smacked her, then heaven alone knew what would've happened.

Second, because she knew what the Dursleys were like, she had had visions of them hurting her and her little sister because they had the power. But what made it worse was Dumbledore had said to her parents they couldn't visit their children, so if the Dursleys chose to harm either girl then they could do it without repercussion.

Charlotte had never really thought much of the old wizard. It was one of the reasons she had begged her parents to not let her go to Hogwarts.

An idea came to mind. "Has Dan shown distrust towards you and loyalty towards Dumbledore?" she asked.

James nodded and closed his eyes tiredly while his daughter watched sympathetically, knowing this was killing him. "Yeah, but with things going to hell we couldn't check. Will you be able to find out who the potions are geared too?"

"Mum's taking the vomit and putting it in the potions lab in the house. Once the flushing potion has done its job, we're going to be going through the lot to find out who made these potions," Charlotte replied.

James had to shudder at the dark look of vengeance that promised pain on his daughter's face. He knew that if it were him then he would be planning pranks, but Charlotte didn't think a prank was the perfect form of revenge.

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By the time the flushing potion had done its job, it was nearly seven in the morning. The fact it had taken so long proved that Dan had had so many potions in his body. The sheer number was sickening. Using potions themselves, Lily and Charlotte spent another hour checking the potions in the vomit. They had finished when Dan came down heavily after having a long shower.

"Feeling better?" Charlotte whispered sympathetically, knowing that Dan's body was treating this whole affair like a terrible hangover.

"Much better, thanks," Dan whispered, rubbing his head; in accordance with their instructions James had given Dan a potion to help him recover and told him to take a shower. "What happened?"

"Sit down. Do you feel well enough to read?" Charlotte asked while her brother did as he was told.

"Yeah, why?"

"Read this," Charlotte handed him a very long sheet of parchment. Dan took it quizzically and began to read. It didn't take him long to realise what he was seeing. He looked into his sister's face.

"Last night I had the chance to check if you had potions in your body," Charlotte explained. "I've suspected something was wrong for a while; when we were growing up, for example, you were interested in reading books, but after you started going to Hogwarts you began to change. But you began talking about Dumbledore as if he were a god….. I didn't really have a chance to check since I wasn't really here, but last night I began to guess someone had slipped you some potions. But I was not expecting anything like what's on that list."

Dan read the list and judging from the expression on his face that shifted between horror, anger, sadness and dismay, Charlotte guessed he knew the names of the girls who'd slipped him the love potions.

"Dumbledore had loyalty and distrust potions slipped into my food and whatever I drank," he whispered. "I feel so used, so stupid. I can guess who slipped me the potions to stop me learning anything; Snape always felt vindicated whenever he called me a dunderhead."

James muttered something under his breath, but Charlotte didn't pay him much attention.

"I'm not surprised about the potion geared for Ginny Weasley; the girl's always fancied me," Dan commented.

Lily made a face. "Molly has an unhealthy interest in marrying into the family," she said, "don't forget she wanted you to marry Percy, Chaz."

Charlotte made a face herself. She had met Percy Weasley and she knew that even if the boy had been interested in her, the feeling would not be mutual. Percy was a boring pencil pusher. He had no zest for life, he followed rules like they were gospel.

"Do you think Ginny made the potion or had her mother make it?" Dan asked.

Charlotte shrugged. "I don't know, that's for Auntie Amy to worry about," she said.

She had heard that Amelia Bones had been lucky enough to survive an encounter with Lord Voldemort himself, though she had gotten away with some truly nasty injuries.

Dan read through the list again and he suddenly exploded in anger. "Hermione gave me potions as well?! I honestly thought we were friends!"

"Maybe she was once," Charlotte commented. "And then maybe she was pressured into giving you potions under some kind of assurance. But right now, I want to know why Dumbledore if giving you a mission that better-trained wizards should handle."

Dan's mind was all over the place, shaken by the betrayal of someone he had once considered a friend and just how far so many people were willing to go to get into his pants. "I don't know, Chaz," he whispered. "Looking back I should have realised Dumbledore was holding back about telling me about the Horcruxes, but the potions must have made my brain fuzzy."

"What are Horcruxes anyway?" Lily asked suddenly. "Hermione didn't want you to talk about them, and then you Charlotte reacted violently."

Charlotte listened as Dan explained what Dumbledore had 'told' him over the year, and she could tell at once what Dan had meant by Dumbledore holding back about the Horcruxes; to think the old fool had kept a handful of memories in private for so long but couldn't be bothered getting it out of the way in just one night…..

Why was it every time she expected Dumbledore to think about something better, the old man went and did the exact opposite?

While her parents were surprised and dismayed this Professor Slughorn guy had deliberately withheld a vital memory about how he'd given the young Voldemort information about how to become immortal and knowing that all those deaths were his fault, Charlotte couldn't blame the old potions master for his stupid mistake or his decision to hide it. Who in their right mind would want to know that they had the blood of thousands of people, magical and non-magical, on their hands?

But Charlotte wanted to laugh at Dumbledore's decision to just wait for the potions master to come to him, cup in hand, and confess to what he'd done. That and the old man's proclamation about the diary Dan mentioned, the one that had contained a Horcrux that her brother had destroyed when he was 12 years old when the muggle-born students were under attack by a Basilisk of all things, that Dumbledore finally had proof about what Voldemort had done was more proof that she had expected that Dumbledore, one of the most powerful and famous wizards of the modern era, was a complete moron.

"I'm not surprised that this Slughorn hid what he'd done," Charlotte said, at last, surprising her parents and brother with her remark. "Not many people would want to admit that kind of action, though don't be so quick to judge him. But I can't work out why Dumbledore didn't just take the memory forcibly; he was a powerful wizard and skilled with the mind arts. It wouldn't be difficult for him. But this is just another reason why this country is stupid for not teaching about the truths about Horcruxes."

"What are Horcruxes?" Lily repeated the question, impatiently this time. Charlotte realised that her parents hadn't been told about them yet. She sighed.

"Horcruxes are powerful dark magic artefacts. They are one of a few forms of magic that I can say are truly evil; you can use the Unforgivable curses for goodwill, you can use the killing curse to put down a hostile animal, or use the cruciatus to re-start the heart. But a Horcrux has no light application whatsoever," she explained. "They're basically pieces of the soul, torn from the main soul, and placed into containers. They're believed to make someone immortal."

Charlotte shook her head. "I learned about the Horcruxes during my first year as a Curse-Breaker. They're seen as a joke by Curse-Breakers and Unspeakables because while the theory behind them is sound, they don't make you immortal. No-one knows when they were first invented; Herpo the Foul created one, but Curse-Breakers have come across them regularly on searches for treasure. They work partially, I'll give you that. But they don't make you immortal."

She looked into the faces of her family and saw the look of disbelief on Dan's face. "Chaz, while I hate Dumbledore for making sure I take those potions, what he said about the Horcruxes-."

Charlotte interrupted him, wondering if he was putting too much stock into the situation. "Horcruxes don't make you immortal; its a myth. You can still die. Herpo the Foul is definitely dead, right? In theory, the bastard should be running around and even Voldemort wouldn't want to go toe to toe with someone like him. While making a Horcrux theoretically means splitting your soul to become immortal, it actually does two things - it splits your magic, and it makes your soul vulnerable. There are cases where a Horcrux has allowed a witch or wizard to live a little longer, but there are also cases where they shorten the lifespan of a wizard or a witch."

"In every magical country where magic developed, and things like the Ministry and the MACUSA didn't exist, the people who practiced magic actually went the extra mile in studying what magic could do. Every time they learned of the existence of the soul, they would experiment with it, or they would hear of experiments which said it was possible to split the soul to become an immortal. It's not an old idea. But they had the common sense to realise attaining immortality by splitting your soul was not the way to go.'

"There is proof of the Ancient Egyptians and the Ancient Druids using a ritual to drain the Horcruxes which would drain the magic of the fool who'd created them. That's the more practical and elegant way of dealing with a Horcrux; you only need to find the piece, and then you don't even need to face that wizard in battle. A potion and an incantation are all that's needed."

Daniel looked at her in disbelief. "Are you saying Dumbledore could've stopped Voldemort coming back if he'd bothered asking a Curse-Breaker for help?!" he shouted. "You're a Curse-Breaker; you don't trust him, but you could've done it, and Bill Weasley comes from a family that worships him like a god."

Charlotte nodded. "There's the possibility Dumbledore never knew," she pointed out logically. She wasn't trying to defend Dumbledore's actions. "There are so many factors; the Ministry of Magic has spent the last 800 years, even a little bit more, going to a lot of trouble to ban forms of magic they simply didn't understand. Blood magic, rituals that have been around for centuries, the list is incredibly long. They did all that because they wanted to maintain their power. But if you know where to look, you can still find pieces of old magic. But the Ministry has gone to a lot of trouble to destroy everything they consider dark, and they're a bit overzealous. I doubt one in a thousand wizards in Britain today know about the ritual the Druids came up with to destroy the Horcruxes."

James looked pained. Charlotte wondered if it had anything to do with her attack against the Ministry and their desire to control the population through lack of information.

"What's the ritual?"

"It has to be performed on a full moon," Charlotte explained, "it requires a potion a first-year student would find straight forwards to make; you need to bear in mind that the Druids, not being completely magical, relied on potions to perform their magic, and as a result many of them were simple. It's similar to the Egyptian ritual, which also uses a potion whose ingredients come from a country that's dry and arid. I can perform the ritual, though we'd need to use a Druidic ritual site."

James was frowning thoughtfully. "Charlotte, do you think Voldemort knows about the druids and this ritual? When he was on the rise, the druids were one of the people he targeted."

"It's possible," Charlotte replied, "but I don't know for sure."

"When can we begin the ritual?" Dan asked excited at the thought of getting it over with.

"I need to check our stock of potions," Charlotte said, "and I need to check our cauldrons so I can burn in the runes before I check the maps and find the nearest site where we can perform the ritual.'

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As it turned out, finding the cauldron, some of the basics of the potion and finding a good enough site to perform the ritual were the easiest parts. The cauldron was a standard copper cauldron since the metal would stabilise the potion as it brewed. The Potters potions lab had some of the ingredients in stock, but Charlotte and Lily both went out to get the rest of the ingredients together. They had come back after an hour in Diagon Alley with the fresh ingredients, and they'd informed Daniel and James of the fear that had gripped the alley. Everyone was afraid of more death now Dumbledore was dead.

Charlotte carefully cleaned the cauldron and spent an hour carefully burning the runes into the cauldron while they waited for the full moon to rise. In that time, Charlotte showed Lily how to prepare the potion needed for the ritual while James, Jess and Dan scoured the magical maps for a druid ritual site. The younger Potter child didn't really understand what was happening, none of her family had told her why it was important but she had been told it was important, though Charlotte made a mental note to make sure her little sister knew about these types of rituals and why they were vital.

It was Dan, who had a reason to be motivated, who found the site. Charlotte went with him and their dad to the site. Like most druid ritual sites, the place was in a remote little clearing full of overgrown trees and grass, but it was perfect.

The potion and the ritual were virtually ready. Charlotte and Lily both made sure the potion's lab was locked off to prevent anything happening to them either, and both Potter women would check on the materials periodically. In the meantime, the Potters were fielding attempts by the Order to get in touch and join in the meetings. Dumbledore's death had left one hell of a vacuum that some of the members were trying to fill. Lily and James both went to one of the meetings, but they quickly came back in disgust.

Apparently, they, like Sirius, Remus, Alastor and a couple of the other members of the Order had become sick and tired by the continuous arguing about what they should do with the Death Eaters. While they agreed the problem should be solved, many of the Order simply didn't understand the Death Eaters would only respond to violence.

Dumbledore had had the final word about that, and he had had several supporters, most notably Molly Weasley. Alastor Moody and the others in the group who believed the Death Eaters shouldn't be played with but should, in fact, be killed for their crimes had hoped that without the old wizard to screw things up would finally make some headway. But they had been shouted down by the banshee and everyone else had tried to repeat Dumbledore's holier than thou dogma, and the group had finally decided to leave.

Charlotte had gotten an idea. She asked her dad and mum to invite those same people to the house, along with the new Minister for Magic and for Amelia Bones.

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"So you mean to say that all Dumbledore needed to do was consult a Curse-Breaker, one whom we had in that stupid Order, and then we wouldn't be in this mess?!" Alastor Moody growled.

The four Potters were sitting with the Minister and the breakaway group of the Order of the Phoenix while Amelia Bones had brought along her niece Susan to play with Jess and keep her occupied during this meeting. Amelia had refused to allow Susan be alone unless she was nearby, and after the very real attack on her person, the redhead couldn't blame her.

The reaction the group had had after hearing about what they'd learnt was exactly as they'd expected.

"Pretty much," Charlotte replied evenly. "Bill Weasley and I have been trained in how to deal with Horcruxes. There are two methods that are virtually identical, and far better than simply destroying the soul container. The goblins hate the things because so many priceless treasures have been lost over the centuries because people believed that some of the authors of specific books had known what they were writing about."

Dan looked slyly at his sister. "Tell them about the Death Eaters?"

Amelia and Alastor looked sharply at Charlotte. "What about the Death Eaters?"

Charlotte grimaced at their tone. "Well, when I learnt Dumbledore had decided to send my brother off on a fool's errand to hunt the Horcruxes down when completely unaware he didn't need too, I was confused. I mean, everyone knows Voldemort disappeared that same night he attacked my family. Dumbledore believed it was the Horcruxes that stopped him dying completely. But that's not right. Horcruxes don't make you immortal, they might make you like a few more years, but they're just as likely to make you live only twenty. It's a myth, but since many people believed splitting your magic and soul into pieces makes you immortal, he wouldn't have known. There aren't that many sources of reliable information about the process and the long-term effects."

"I don't know what would have happened to Voldemort if he had relied strictly on splitting his soul, so don't ask, but if he did then he shouldn't be able to walk, never mind cast so many of the most powerful spells in existence. I just said splitting your soul means splitting your magic as well, and considering how many soul pieces the stupid fool made, he shouldn't even be a wizard anymore. He must be getting his strength from another source. The Death Eaters."

Amelia Bones leaned forwards. "What do you mean by that, Chaz?"

Charlotte smiled grimly. "When Voldemort attacked my family, he should have died. The Horcruxes had made his soul vulnerable, so when he was hit by the rebounded killing curse, it should have killed him. Instead, he survived. Something else is keeping him alive. Dan gave me the clue when I asked him to recount the night Voldemort was brought back. He pressed his wand into one of the Dark Marks branded into the arm of one of his followers, and summoned the free members of the Inner circle to where he was."

"Dan's story reminded me of an account I read about a group of magical explorers. One of them was dying, and so the captain devised a rune that bound the man to the ship, so the wizard could receive some of the magical energy around them. He was saved, but over the years Dark Lords and minor Dark wizards and witches have used the same technique to bind their followers or accomplices to them. A few of them had the same idea as Voldemort - they wanted to use their followers to make them subtly immortal and keep them going, but others had a more practical reason."

"With their magic linked to another's magic, the Dark Lord could channel more power into their spells, and be seen as more powerful than they had been previously. That's why Voldemort's so powerful - he's not using his own magical energy, I doubt that he has any left spare. He's leaching off the power of his followers. And because of those marks, the more people he brands, the more magic he has access to. I don't know when Voldemort realised he was losing power, so don't ask. All I know is that some very important questions have been answered about him."

Alastor let out a gruff laugh of disbelief. "All this time we've been letting some of the Death Eaters off with a slap on the wrists, all the time he spits on the graves of the people they've murdered, all the time listening to Dumbledore preach about forgiveness and redemption…. and all the time we've been giving that monster more time to attack and return!"

"Believe me, Alastor, I was just as surprised and horrified," Lily said softly, but everyone could hear the undertones of bitterness in her voice. "I lost my parents and some of my friends to those bastards, and all the time Dumbledore kept talking about redemption completely oblivious to the loss of life."

Sirius looked at Charlotte curiously. "Why did you want us to know this?"

"When the ritual begins, Voldemort will be drawn into this," Charlotte held up the amulet she planned to use to house the soul pieces. She'd kept it in one of her pockets. "Since his body is magically constructed after it was rebuilt after using another ritual, the components will collapse onto the ground. In a normal human being, the body would resemble one kissed by the Dementors. A soulless husk. But the Death Eaters won't be affected, not until we connect the amulet to the Hogwarts warding stone, and then the Death Eaters and the Horcruxes will be drained once and for all."

"Why the Hogwarts stone?" Remus asked mildly.

"Why not? It would be incredibly ironic; the so-called Heir of Slytherin finally giving something back to Hogwarts instead of dead bodies," Charlotte replied. "You should know that when the amulet's hooked up, the Death Eaters will be drained themselves at that point. Not before. You'll find it easier to deal with them from that point."

"When will the ritual be held?"

"On the next full moon."

Remus grimaced. He was looking more and more sickly as the inevitable transformation drew nearer.

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Charlotte looked sadly down at her brother while trying to fight off nausea she herself was feeling. The ritual had been carried out and all of Voldemort's Horcruxes were now safely locked away inside the amulet along with the main chunk of soul that had been animating the magical construct Voldemort and Pettigrew had created a few years ago. It had taken a great deal out of Dan and Charlotte, who had both initiated the ritual and saw it through. It had taken over three hours for the ritual to work and so much of their magic had been poured into it, refined and enriched by the magic of the full moon.

Ignoring the looks of concern from her parents, Charlotte stood up slowly and hobbled over to a nearby couch. Both of the Potters' eldest children were too tired to go upstairs, and while Lily and James could've had them magically taken to their rooms the adults were too tired to do so. Lily gently guided her daughter over to her couch and let her fall asleep.

For the next couple of days, the Potters forgot about what was going on in the magical world and tried their best to have fun. They went out frequently into the muggle world and enjoyed themselves while Daniel and Charlotte recovered from the ritual. More than once, especially when they were at a theme park, Charlotte would catch the looks on her parent's faces. They were over the moon Voldemort was finally going to be ended, but it was clear they were upset that Dumbledore had probably planned for their son to be killed in the conflict.

In the meantime, Lily and James were speaking to Scrimgeour and Amelia concerning the potions found in Dan's system, and both agreed with the Potters the guilty parties should be punished for their crimes. Personally, Charlotte was looking forward to Molly Weasley finally paying for her stupidity, and she didn't care about the rest of the family either. Hopefully after seeing what happened to their mother would make the rest of the family see that if you wanted to become good then you needed to work at it.

What made Charlotte angry was their wanton greed, but she hoped that after this their younger members would begin to grow up. Personally, Charlotte wished Molly was getting the Dementor's kiss, the horror of seeing their mother with her soul sucked out would probably make the rest of the family hate her own, but she didn't care.

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Charlotte walked with her family into Hogwarts. She had never been inside the school herself personally, but even she could feel the wealth of history in this school. What really saddened her was knowing how many subjects from the school's curriculum had either been removed or relegated to the sidelines as electives, and she knew Dumbledore had something to do with that.

In her mind, those subjects should be compulsory, not relegated to the sidelines and receive only a few people being interested in them. That was the problem with Hogwarts these days, and she was glad her brother now knew he had made a mistake coming to this fucking place. Dan had asked their parents if he could transfer to Illvermorny and retake some of his classes to make up for what those potions had done to him, and they'd agreed wholeheartedly; they didn't want to take the risk of him getting any more potions in his system again, even if Snape was about to lose his magic, and Dumbledore was dead.

Lily and James had already prepared the paperwork for Dan's transfer and they were going to speak to McGonagall about removing Jess' name from the roster as well. Charlotte, meanwhile, had contacted her old school and told her old headteacher about the change. They seemed willing, but it would up to Dan to prove himself. Illvermorny didn't have the same forgive and forget policy Dumbledore and Hogwarts had adopted, but Dan would be told that before he left. To say her former headteacher was disgusted by what a teacher at Hogwarts had done to her brother, stunting his magical growth like that, was an understatement.

Minerva McGonagall was waiting for them, and she escorted them quietly to the room where the ward stone was. Charlotte knew her father had spoken to the woman about the Horcruxes and Dumbledore's mistakes, and about what happened to Dan. The woman had, from what James had described, been furious with what Dumbledore had foolishly done. McGonagall was the only one in the room except for Dumbledore's portrait which had been moved into the room.

The painting of the old wizard looked surprised by the location of the meeting and with the party of Potters.

"Ah, Daniel, my dear boy, why exactly are you here? I'm afraid if you want any advice for what I asked you to do, then I am afraid it will have to wait until later," the portrait said.

Dan glared at the portrait furiously. "Why would I want to talk to you about anything, you idiotic bastard?"

Dumbledore's painted eyes blinked with surprise at the anger wafting over the teenage boy. "I'm sorry?"

"The Horcruxes have already been dealt with," Dan snapped but there was a hint of weariness in his voice now. "My sister is a Curse-Breaker. It's amazing what they could do, they know how to take care of Horcruxes better than you could."

"What?"

Charlotte stepped forwards with the piece of silver jewellery, and after a quick exchange with McGonagall, she placed it on the wardstone and instantly it began to glow with magical energy. "Curse Breakers come across these things all the time," she explained for the portrait's benefit, though whether the remnant of Albus Dumbledore in the living world would take it onboard she didn't know and didn't care, "and instead of blasting them with killing curses, we just drain their magic. Horcruxes are one of the biggest jokes in Curse-Breaker circles because while sometimes they work partially, they don't make you immortal. It's a myth. Sometimes a Horcrux will allow you to live longer, maybe even another hundred years, but sometimes they slice your lifespan in halves and quarters, hardly the best means to become immortal."

Charlotte smirked mockingly at the portrait. "But I was doing some thinking on the night Voldemort attacked my family, and something struck me; when you have a Horcrux, you can still die - you can Dumbledore," she added when the portrait looked set to interrupt her, no doubt about to 'enlighten' her about the facts he'd picked up on the Horcruxes over the years, "so when Voldemort was right by that rebounding curse he should have died, not become a wraith. So I looked around, and low and behold, I saw there was a way. You see, my brother described what Voldemort had done with the Dark Marks, how he only needed to touch one to summon others, and that gave me a clue. Voldemort had at some point realised he was losing his powers because of the Horcruxes, so he came up with a similar means to become immortal; he marked the Death Eaters and collected some of their magic, and they would keep him anchored to the mortal plane."

It was so surprising to see a magical portrait pale and look slack-jawed in surprise, but Dumbledore's portrait definitely did.

"Do you get it now, Albus?" Lily interrupted quietly, her eyes flashing angrily she went over to stand next to her eldest daughter. "You made us stun those Death Eaters when they should all have been killed, or else Voldemort would never have been ended. Personally, I'm glad my daughter's a Curse-Breaker and had enough sense to see what was going on if we'd left it to you then my younger daughter's kids might have been forced to fight the same battle over and over again."

Charlotte shuddered at the thought.

Dumbledore didn't utter a word, but Charlotte wasn't finished with him yet, not by a long shot. "Did you know about the potions being poured into my brother's system, the ones that restricted his magical growth? The ones that Molly Weasley gave him so then he would 'fall in love' with their youngest child? In some parts of the world, love potions are punishable by death!"

"It was for the Greater good-."

"Greater good? I have heard of another wizard who used those words to get what he wanted, but he wasn't original," Charlotte interrupted over the angry cries from her brother and parents, clearly wondering how it could be for the Greater good Dan's life was put in jeopardy, "those same words have been used to justify horrific acts. The fact you yourself believe in such a philosophy makes you into someone I do not want to know. But what I do want to know is how you can justify the use of potions designed to make my brother into your little acolyte and turn him against us, his own family?"

Not waiting for an answer and turning her back to make Dumbledore realise she didn't even want to hear the reason (excuse), Charlotte turned back to the stone. The process was finished.

"The Hogwarts wards are powered up again with the magic of Voldemort and his followers, so for once in their lives, the Death Eaters will be doing something for other people instead of murdering them," she said offhandedly, and she looked up almost challengingly at Dumbledore's portrait, as if daring him to say something about draining the Death Eaters.

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Some years later.

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Charlotte adjusted her sunglasses and squinted into the tomb that had recently been opened by herself and her fellow Curse-Breakers - more than a few of them were like her, tomb raiders looking to make a quick galleon on the side, but as long as they compensated by giving the goblins what they wanted, they could get away with it.

It was so hot in this part of Syria, and in another direction, she knew that once more the muggles were fighting each other in one of their interminable wars. Charlotte didn't understand the appeal behind the Islamic militants, and she followed enough news to know that their cause had attracted the attention and support of dozens of muggles, who had abandoned their homes and come here to fight in the belief they were fighting for a cause, that it was righteous and whatnot. The tomb raiders in Syria didn't care; thanks to their magic they were protected here, and even if the muggle fighters found them, they would be easy to overcome, but they were causing headaches with the local magical authorities. The middle east had a deep and rich history in both worlds, and it was only in the muggle world that it was threatened. None of the middle eastern wizards or witches cared for the fanatical religious nutcases, and even if they went too far she knew they would step in if it was needed. The muggles wouldn't know what hit them. If they thought their methods of execution were great, then they would have known they were amateurs compared to their magical counterparts.

Charlotte watched as the tomb raiders worked on levitating the massive chunk of rock out of the way. She was glad things were going as well as they were now Lord Voldemort was dead, and quite a lot had changed for the Potters. Dan had gone to Illvermorny and had quickly caught up with others in his level, but she'd sensed his embarrassment of having to redo some of his exams and lessons again, though this time they were both pleased he had buckled down and made up for lost time.

More than could be said for his ex-best friends. Ron Weasley had been furious with the Potters for sending his mother to Azkaban for the love potions while the rest of the family, including Ginny for some reason, had woken up and realised they had made a mistake. The rest of the family were now like bugs in a bell-jar, constantly under surveillance in case they made the same mistakes as Molly had done. Charlotte didn't think it would happen like that again, but it wasn't something to be concerned about. The other love potions had seen dozens of arrests and depending on the severity and strength of the potions, had also seen those girls be put into Azkaban.

The public outcry that the hero of the magical world had been dosed with potions had been tremendous, though Charlotte was sure many of them were wondering how they could still get their grubby hands on the Potter wealth, but Lily and James had asked her to find a ward or something that could detect the presence of love potions whether or not they'd been ingested. Charlotte had found just the ward, and put it on in the house to stop something like this happening again.

The curious part had been Hermione Granger's own role, but the girl had apparently just followed a crowd's direction and decided to go the extra few miles to make sure she didn't lose her friend. While Charlotte could appreciate that, she was still disturbed by the lengths the girl would go too. Charlotte didn't know what had happened to Granger since, but she found she didn't care. It was just such a shame that a young muggle-born girl would only make things worse than they should have been for others like her. Just because Voldemort and many of the Death Eaters were gone, that did not mean the pureblood's ridiculous philosophy was gone. Hermione Granger had given them ample evidence that their opinions were justified, and now her name was probably being spat on by others like her.

After leaving school, Dan had followed in her footsteps and become a Curse-Breaker himself while Jess was only just starting out in Illvermorny herself. It had been a blow to the prestige of Hogwarts to see a family as old as the Potters move schools, but Charlotte didn't care.

The end.

Please tell me what you all think.


	3. Thinking like a Thief

My thanks to whitetigerworlf for the lesbian theme in the story.

Thinking like a Thief.

Sitting cross-legged, Rose Potter was relaxing in one of the few ways she could these days. Grimmauld Place was a dump that made the parts of London where she had spent six years of her life after managing to escape the Dursleys at the age of four look like luxury palaces. She didn't really care if any of the Order were trying to find her, but since they would probably blame her for Mr Weasley's hospitalisation though how they'd come to that amazing deduction was beyond her, but Rose had a feeling they were judging her because of her sexuality, and needed new material.

Rose didn't care what they were thinking. She was long past the point.

The good news was the Order seemed more than willing to leave her to her own devices.

But thanks to the spells she'd cast over the door and the walls inside and out to stop anyone from the Order of the Phoenix from coming in, she was relatively at peace.

She needed peace these days.

Her fifth year at Hogwarts was a living hell for her. Then again so too had been her fourth year when the Tri-Wizard tournament was on; not only was she competing in a game to the literal death with three other people that were three years older than she was under the pretence of fostering International goodwill, but was rather the sick enjoyment of other people to witness the so-called Champions nearly die.

Hogwarts had been hosting the last tournament, and it wasn't until the three contestants were chosen by the goblet of fire that the inevitable happened. Rose's own name was pulled out of the stupid goblet and she'd been forced to compete. Everyone - from the staff and the students to the stupid caretaker Hogwarts had - believed she had put her name in the goblet, and half the school had worn a stupid badge proclaiming "SUPPORT CEDRIC DIGGORY - THE REAL HOGWARTS CHAMPION."

The message would change to "POTTER STINKS!"

Whenever Rose had seen that she had held back the urge to murder the morons who'd worn the badge, though the first time she'd seen them she had gotten her revenge very quickly. But she had made an exception for Draco Malfoy. Her friendships with Ron and Hermione had also gone down the drain, though at first it had been Ron who had been the problem - he had spent a month basically telling Rose she was a fame obsessed nutter, and had gone off in one of his jealous stages. Rose didn't understand why Ron had to make such a big drama out of things, and was so incredibly blind. Now she simply didn't bother caring. Hermione had stuck by with her, trying to help her prepare for the First Task. It wasn't until the week was out and Rose had decided she had waited long enough to put the next stage of her plan into operation.

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Rose was sitting isolated from the rest of the Gryffindors with Hermione. She could see the bushy haired girl was looking apprehensive and even skittish about being with the House outcast. Rose had been watching the girl closely for the last few days, and she wondered how long it would be before Hermione decided to follow the crowd and dump her.

Rose had always wondered after the second year when the school had turned on her simply because she could speak to snakes (she was still annoyed that the Other hadn't told her about parseltongue being considered Dark, but since the Other had not made herself known before she'd escaped Number 4 there hadn't been much need) how long her friendships would last and she had prepared contingencies.

When she'd discovered the books in the library which were relevant were missing, Rose and the Other had been concerned but not surprised - she had everything worked out.

Everyone was eating their meals when Rose stood up, waving her hand to her vocal chords, ignoring Hermione's start with surprise. "Ladies and Gentleman, silence, please. I, Rose Lily Potter, do hereby swear on my life and my magic I did not put my name into the Goblet of Fire. So mote it be!"

Her body glowed to signify the acceptance of the oath and she took out her wand and cast the Patronus charm silently - she didn't really need the wand she'd purchased in Diagon Alley since she had felt it constrict her ability to perform magic, so she used it to learn new spells, but otherwise she used wand-less magic.

Rose smirked at the sight of the Leopard Patronus as it prowled dangerously around the hall before it dissipated. "You see? I didn't put that name in the goblet. I am still alive, I still have my magic. So much for your evidence I put my name in the stupid thing. I could have made this oath anytime I chose, but I decided to allow this stupid facade, having to put up with the morons in each house including my own call me a fame-obsessed nutter or a cheat so I could find out who my friends were and who wasn't. Sorry - but to those who were my friend and either stood on the sidelines and allowed this to happen, you have my never-ending scorn. For those who wore those badges, lets just say you're more likely to see Malfoy be buggered by Centaurs than you going to be forgiven by me. You have had chances from me before, not any more you don't."

Rose flicked her fingers surreptitiously and walked out of the hall alone.

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The outcome of that oath had been hilarious. Rose had spent the rest of her time casting notice-me-not charms over herself and Hermione as she tried to study to survive the tournament. Dozens of people had tried to apologise to her, well find her to apologise she should say, but she had refused their overtures and using a combination of wand-less magic and the Marauders Map she'd nicked off the twins she was always one or three steps ahead, luring them into traps so she could get away.

She had survived the dragon before suddenly she was loved again by everyone for surviving the dragon. It was like they had decided 'we had always believed in her deep down, she'll come around to forgiving us again, she didn't mean it.' But it wasn't until Professor McGonagall had announced the Yule ball and the need for a dancing partner things had fallen apart.

Rose and Hermione had talked in the privacy of their dorm in the tower, and they'd chatted about the upcoming ball. Rose had been in a right state about the ball, but not for the stupid reasons Hermione believed - she had never seen the point of dancing, but she had seen movies and had practiced them from scratch, but that wasn't what the problem was.

Rose had confided in Hermione that she, Rose Lily Potter, the only surviving member of the Potter family like Susan and Neville were the last of their families, was a lesbian and didn't like boys that much. She had begun to have the realisation after spending the past year and a half trying to look at boys as attractive, but to her surprise, she was more attracted to girls and women, partially because of her bad experiences around them. She even ogled and preferred the female students and her fellow female classmates at Hogwarts. When McGonagall had told her about the duty she had to open the ball, she had disclosed the secret.

Big mistake.

If Rose had ever realised her 'best friend' was homophobic then she would never have told her, but she had assumed that Hermione, the muggle-born crusader for House-Elf rights and who constantly preached about how backward the magical world was happened to be no better than the Death Eaters and the majority of the students and teachers at Hogwarts. Hermione had had no qualms about dropping her as a friend, but she had also spread the news about the school.

Magical Britain looked down on homosexuality. The only bright side was Rose had ended up with her own private room far from the girls of any house, that was only done reluctantly and because her roommates and the female players on the Quidditch team had informed McGonagall that were uncomfortable with a lesbian in their midst. The Gryffindors had cast her out. Things had gone straight to hell and a magical oath couldn't help her here. She had been cursed in the hallways, bullied, and she had almost been raped a few times. It was just a miracle she had not walked around with her head in the clouds and had the Marauder's map on her person, otherwise she would have been raped, but sometimes she had needed to foil them with her own natural physical fitness and reflexes, honed by years on the streets and with her wand-less magic. The pretence she relied on her wand was finally dropped and soon she was scorned by those jealous of the ability for that, but since everyone hated her already it didn't make much difference. None of the attackers was punished by the teachers of course, why would they be when the teachers agreed with them?

To make matters worse, though she couldn't see how, the Daily Prophet, already foaming at the mouth with glee at finally having enough material carried on the catalyst sparked by Rita bloody Skeeter and had resulted in a massive avalanche. The newspaper had crucified her and they had loved every second of revealing to the nation of her 'perversion.'

She had received hate mail from everyone, some of it had been booby-trapped, but after the first day she would always use her magic to confound the owls into taking the mail back to their senders, the curses and booby-traps still on, but the spells on the letters were augmented to be three times more powerful and more dangerous.

Rose had not attended the Yule Ball - everyone knew she was a dyke, no-one would want to be seen in her presence. To make things worse Sirius had sent her a letter telling her she had shamed her parents' memory and told her she was no goddaughter of his. It had taken all of her self-control not to rat the bastard out to the DMLE, it was only her sense of justice that meant Sirius Black was still in one piece. But it had been tempting to rat him out and even if Pettigrew was caught after Black was kissed - oopsie. But she hadn't been interested in the dance, fuck Hogwarts' reputation.

During the Yule ball, she had left Hogwarts, using the passages marked on the map to get into Hogsmeade so she could transport herself to Muggle London. She had wanted to have a change of scenery, she was just so sick of everything and didn't really fancy spending a night alone. In Rose's mind, there was no point in living if you didn't live a few times.

Rose had ventured into a gay bar and she had quickly ended up in a threesome with two other teenage girls who didn't know anything about her past. They both showed her to embrace her sexuality, and they had taken her back to their flat to experience lesbian sex for the first time in her life, and it had been blissful. When she had returned to Hogwarts she had encountered Dumbledore and McGonagall, who was angry at her for not attending the Ball.

In the second task, there was no-one down in the lake for her to retrieve - it seemed even Dumbledore, who Rose didn't consider to be all there, realised there wasn't much point putting someone down there, but she had needed to retrieve something specifically meant for her.

A broomstick.

Right, that was supposed to be important to her?

She might like flying, but it wasn't her life. Hell, by that point Rose was unsure what was important to her. She was a hero/scapegoat/punching bag for the magical world, and in the muggle world, she was a burglar and thief.

When she had seen the stupid thing, she had thought the handle had been transfigured to resemble a mans' dick. She had left it down there and retrieved Fleur Delacour's sister instead after realising the older girl wasn't coming. She had left the scene before the French girl could say anything to her, and she had hidden from the school. By that point she had decided to attend the classes of the older students always under a spell to keep herself invisible - she had learnt that some witches and wizards could sense the magical auras of those around them, so she had quickly found a way to dampen hers.

Rose bypassed fourth-year level and entered sixth and seventh-year levels and practised in secret while using Dobby and the other House Elves to help her learn their own brand of magic. All that time she was preparing for the worst. She knew that someone had put her into the tournament, and they would probably make their move around the time of the third task. After all, what was the expression, third time's the charm?

The third task was hell, and the moment she had dreaded ever since she'd discovered he could return had finally arrived. Lord Voldemort, the thing who had murdered her parents, who had ensured she spent the first years of her life with the Dursleys before she'd escaped becoming a street thief, had her kidnapped and used in a ritual to restore his body and strength. Voldemort had challenged her to a duel, but she had dismissed her wand, and she had fought against the Dark Lord for over an hour before she escaped.

Voldemort and the Death Eaters had been taken aback by the vicious spells she had used against them, believing in the prior lies about her being like Albus Dumbledore, which meant she would never use anything lethal. They didn't have a clue. It was the first true fight she had ever had with the Death Eaters.

And she had only just been holding back. Well, no more. The next time she saw one they were going to die. No mercy. They had threatened to rape her, make her into a proper woman, according to them.

Rose had tried to warn everyone he was back, but after her Defence professor had tried to kill her, she had been rescued by Dumbledore. The old man seemed to believe her about Voldemort, but the Ministry hadn't. After the first year, Dumbledore had ensured she return to Privet drive, but she had quickly ensured the Dursleys realise she was too dangerous for them to abuse, and this year was no exception, he had deeply stressed the need for her to be safe. When she had returned she had completely dismissed the Dursleys as a threat, though she kept alert in case they tried anything stupid, but she had other concerns.

The Daily Prophet was dragging both her and Dumbledore through the mud, but in her case, it was much worse. The newspapers were using the material dug up by Rita Skeeter, and it never got old for them. Rose had left the Dursleys before the Dementors had attacked, not making an effort to help her relatives, and then she had left for Muggle London. When she'd left the soul-sucking monsters had already gorged on 'Big D' Dudley and his gang, and Rose couldn't find it within herself to care. The DMLE had discovered the dementor attack and had contacted her, she had told them she had been preparing to see some muggle friends and wouldn't return. They had not contacted her again afterwards, and she had erected a spell to prevent other witches and wizards tracking her down except for the Hogwarts owl.

Rose had also not bothered in catching the Express - she hadn't seen the point when she knew she'd be spending hours onboard a train where the Hogwarts students would have an easy time to bully her, and besides she had other things to do with her time than sitting in a train compartment all day with nothing to do but read. Rose loved books, but even she had limits. She had arrived at Hogsmeade after spending an entire day further exploring her lesbian nature and trying to have fun.

When she had returned to Hogwarts, she had known the magical world had spent the past month or so pumping out articles that put her and Dumbledore in a bad light, so she hadn't expected much from the students. She was right. She was still being bullied by the students and ignored by the teachers including her former head of house, but since McGonagall was a useless bitch anyways she wasn't really bothered by that. After a week of testing the waters in the school, Rose had completely withdrawn from all but one of the lessons.

Defence Against the Dark Arts.

Granted, while the new book was useless unless you desperately wanted to be killed because the author preached things like running away, Rose found other ways to deal with the class and besides with Dolores Umbridge in the school, seemingly determined to ruin her life under the orders of Minister Fudge, Rose needed the practice with occlumency. It was the only way she could tolerate the odious, useless bitch who now ran the class and used the time to try to bait her.

It was fun looking at the woman as she made some remark about her heritage, her sexual preferences, everything about her really, when all the time Rose just stared back at her impassively or with complete disregard as if Umbridge was beneath her interest, which she was while all the time wishing to transfigure the woman into something she could then pummel to death. She wondered if it was only just her that genuinely just wanted to kill Umbridge whenever the ugly bitch showed her face, and spoke in that fake sweet voice, and made that annoying cough that made you want to give her the Columbian necktie. The mental image of the woman lying dead in a puddle of her blood with a massive hole in her throat, with her tongue pulled through it brought about many glorious fantasises.

Trouble was if she murdered the bitch then she'd be put into Azkaban. As the Bard said, To be, or not to be, that is the question.

She had discovered the mind arts after a particularly bad nightmare before fourth year. At the time she and Sirius were on good terms, she had asked him for advice, and he had suggested occlumency. He had given her a bit of advice but then gave her a reasonably good book for her to study, and she had purchased the book.

Rose was delighted she had followed his advice. Thanks to the mind arts she was better able to organise her thoughts and to maintain her composure even though she would have dearly loved to lash out, but with Umbridge using her lessons to push Fudge's agendas down everyone's throat and how she loved taunting her, clearly waiting for an opportunity to put her in detention, with everyone loving every second of it, Rose knew the practice was worth it. Besides, she had looked into Umbridge's mind.

The woman had been the one to send those Dementors to Number 4.

The woman had a Blood Feather to torture her and other students who didn't toe the line with the Ministry or said anything else. Umbridge already had a few students in those detentions, and she was desperate to get Rose Potter in one as well. But as long as Rose kept her head down and said nothing, while all the time keeping to the Hogwarts rules then Umbridge couldn't touch her.

Rose found she didn't care about those other students in Umbridge's detentions, but she was prepared nonetheless. Besides, after the lessons, she would go to the Room of Requirement which Dobby and Winky had shown her the year before and use the room's properties to help her vent her spleen. There was symmetry after all.

Rose didn't see much point in trying to make everyone realise Voldemort was back. She knew it was the truth, he wouldn't be hidden forever. Soon he would come out of hiding, and she would be vindicated.

But then she had had a vision of Mr Weasley being attacked by a snake she recognised as the one Voldemort was with on the night of his resurrection and a few other times during the year, and while she didn't really care about the family after Molly Weasley sent a Howler to her the year before, she had raised the alarm. Rose just didn't understand why Dumbledore wasn't looking at her anymore, but she didn't care. She and the Weasley children still at Hogwarts had gone straight to the place Dumbledore designated 'Headquarters.'

Rose had known what he was talking about. The Order of the Phoenix.

The memories of the Other had made it possible for her to know about the Order and what they did long before she had arrived in the magical world, and she knew while they considered themselves 'the last line of defence,' they were actually useless.

They sat in pointless meetings, they didn't bother recruiting people who had some use - no Curse-Breakers, no healers, no experts in runes, no Unspeakables. All they had was a few old men and some old friends of Dumbledore (what?!) and a few Aurors. Rose had no idea what the Order members did with themselves in the intervals between the meetings.

Why the hell was Molly Weasley involved? Rose didn't have the impression the woman did anything for the Order, nothing except cook. But that was their problem, not hers.

Rose's introduction to the Order was unpleasant to say the least. Everyone treated her with disdain while some did what Dumbledore was doing, speaking as though she weren't there and avoiding her eyes, but some of them were even going as far on lecturing her on her 'perversion' but she turned them out of her mind and avoided them. Even Lupin, the professor who taught her to protect herself from the Dementors, had joined the crowd. Rose had always been annoyed with Lupin, and after she'd learnt the man was a werewolf she had confronted him before he'd been about to leave.

He had given her some talk about how life was for a werewolf, and once he'd started Rose realised that the man had decided to use that as a crutch to stop himself from trying to move on and be something.

But then again whoever said the former Marauders had done anything for her? Aside from her dad, one had betrayed and framed another, that other had lost his temper and gone after him and gotten locked up in a dreadful prison for twelve years. The last marauder had just walked away like a coward.

It surprised Rose when she had been asked personally by Mr Weasley to come to the hospital, under escort (why, what did they think she was going to do, kiss a girl?) and visit him. She had spoken to the man after Arthur had asked for some time for them. Finding out that one member of the family wasn't being judgemental had been refreshing, and he'd told her he had tried to stop Molly from going on about her sexuality, which truly wasn't any of her business, but that hadn't stopped her.

Rose had been happy with him, but her happiness, as always, didn't last. The Order had talked about her and mentioned how Voldemort could effortlessly take her mind over. That was why she was meditating now. Rose had decided she had had enough of Voldemort letting his emotions be beamed into her mind. The moment she had arrived at the headquarters (head-dump, more like) and had asked Dobby and Winky to ensure no one could get in after she'd cast a number of spells on the door and not to disturb her no matter what. She needed to concentrate on her mind.

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It didn't take her long to discover the link she shared to Voldemort. It was like a dark, eerie bridge that put her in mind of that old fairy tale about the troll under the bridge. She spent a moment wondering how she could cross it without Voldemort detecting her, and came up with the idea of simply thinking like Voldemort - how hard could it be? - and suddenly she was able to cross.

For the next few hours, Rose entered Voldemort's mind and sifted through the information. Voldemort's mind was basically Hogwarts, but the castle had been warped and altered by Voldemort from a castle into something that looked like decay was eating the walls. All around this twisted version of the school Rose had been attending for the last few years were muggles and muggle-borns and other magical creatures, downtrodden and enslaved, Death Eaters laughing and jeering at them, torturing them.

Rose, disguised as a Death Eater herself, sneaked her way past them and entered the castle, taking care not to be discovered. The interior of the castle was not the same as it was in real life. The moment she stepped into the castle she was suddenly inside a vast library. Of course - the castle was basically where Voldemort stored his thoughts and his memories. There were massive mirrors like cinema screens showing all kinds of memories in quick succession.

Rose stopped to study them for a while. There were a few memories showing kids who were obviously not afraid of Voldemort at the time, and taking that and their dark ragged clothing into account she imagined them being the same kids Voldemort had known during his time at the orphanage, and the adults there who were clearly angry with him gave that a bit more credence.

The young witch was surprised when she caught sight of a man who was clearly a younger version of Albus Dumbledore in a room at the orphanage that was probably Riddle's bedroom. Dumbledore had introduced Riddle to the magical world? She supposed that made sense - she'd heard from the memory of Riddle that she'd met back in second year Dumbledore had never truly liked him. This was probably the start of that, and as she watched the memory play out again she could see that it was partially Voldemort's fault, especially since he had trophies that he'd taken from other kids. Idiot.

Rose looked away from the memories - they didn't really tell her much, and she had to avoid the memory of her parents being murdered after watching it play out more than once. Clearly, Voldemort liked seeing that same memory again, possibly because he wanted to know where he had gone wrong during that night, but she didn't care. She had nearly broken down crying, and if she had done that then Voldemort could be alerted to her presence but she couldn't let her guard down. For all, she knew the Dark Lord already knew she was here.

Exploring the library was relatively simple. Voldemort had divided his knowledge, plans, memories and strategies into books. The magical knowledge section was vast and didn't seem to have much in the way of modesty due to its size. Rose looked at the books and wondered if she could actually be bothered going through them all before she decided to head for the plans.

The long-term plan was straight forward enough. Voldemort was trying to get into the Department of Mysteries in the Ministry because a prophecy connecting him to her was stored there, and Voldemort wanted it desperately so then he could find out what it said. He only knew a small amount, and a memory played out as she studied the plan, of a Death Eater she was shocked to recognise as Snape tell her of the part.

Rose pushed the knowledge that Snape had started the avalanche that had led her to this point, and pressed on. She wasn't really surprised by Voldemort's decision to focus on the magical world first and foremost before he could uncover what the prophecy said; she read the fear that killing her might do something to him, which was why he had not bothered trying to capture and kill her recently.

Rose almost laughed aloud, but it was only because of where she was that she resisted the urge to break down hysterically. Dumbledore and Moody were wasting their time worrying about keeping her out of the loop. Voldemort had given his Death Eaters orders until he told them otherwise to leave her alone, though they were told to tell their children to keep an eye on her and report back while spying on Hogwarts as well. He had told them they would soon get revenge on her, but secretly Voldemort didn't want to be tempted into doing anything that could result in being torn from his body again, or worse.

This mindset had given Voldemort the time to truly prepare for the inevitable war. Rose had wondered briefly during the summer why Voldemort wasn't truly trying to cause any death or destruction in either world, but she had worked out that in order to start a war you needed to prepare for it, and because of Fudge's stupidity in denying his return, it was the perfect climate for him to flourish. The only problem was that a few people were aware he was back and that there were a few who weren't quite sure, but Voldemort wasn't worried about that. Soon he would appear, and the entire war would continue.

Seeing Voldemort's plans made Rose see for herself the Dark Lord had never truly considered the last war to be over - the past thirteen years were just a respite.

Leaving the section she found something that caught her eye. It was a massive book that wasn't part of any section. It was a massive black tome that glistened like a beetle's carapace but was scaled like a snakeskin. It was titled Immortality. Rose approached the book, and gently opened it without taking it off its pedestal and began to read.

Voldemort had quickly discounted alchemy as a way to make himself immortal. Sure, he was good at potions and had even invented a few, but he wasn't a major potions expert and alchemy required a mind that was really good at potions. The young Tom Riddle had discovered the Philosopher's stone long before he had tried to steal it with the help of Professor Quirrell, but he had learnt enough about it over the years to know some of the ingredients were truly complex and rare and he would need to become dependent on it and take the elixir of life regularly.

Riddle didn't know how regularly the elixir should be taken, he knew it should be and he didn't like the thought of something that could make him immortal being taken from him if someone discovered what he was doing. Besides, he had tried to learn for himself many times over the years what the recipe for the stone was, and he hadn't had much luck - the one time he'd come close had been when she'd been eleven.

Rose tried to imagine Voldemort's anger and frustration at not only being denied a body after so long as a wraith and forced to possess other living beings just to keep himself alive and going a little bit longer, but also because he'd been unable to learn the recipe for the stone in case it was childishly simple.

Strangely Voldemort had considered vampirism as a means to become immortal, but he'd quickly discounted that as well after he'd spent a month studying them. They had too many weaknesses and they burnt iron too quickly, so if he was in the middle of a fight then he might need blood in order to nourish himself. And no one in their right mind would want to follow a vampire, Rose reflected as she turned a page, knowing enough about the pureblood aristocracy to know how they looked down upon werewolves, vampires probably received worse treatment.

Then she found it.

Horcruxes.

As she read this part of the book, she realised she was on the right track, but the more she read the more she realised that once Voldemort had considered making more than one of these things. She felt physically sick at the idea of physically splitting apart a soul and magic and stuffing the piece into a container and then putting it somewhere safe, but she learnt the truth pretty quickly. It was during the London Blitz where the Germans were methodically bombing London back into the Stone Age to force the government to surrender to Hitler that Voldemort became more determined to find a way to become immortal.

Rose couldn't blame him; she had been on the streets of London and had seen and heard tales and pictures of the Blitz. To actually live through it must have been terrifying for Riddle. But while he had been safe in Diagon Alley after escaping the orphanage, unwilling to risk another night spent dreading the fall of a bomb, Riddle had spent his time searching through Knockturn Alley. It was in one of the shops he'd found a book called The Darkest Arts. In that book described a means of immortality. True, Riddle had needed to use a glamour charm to make him appear older than he was, and he read the book voraciously. He had been excited by the prospect of making the Horcruxes. They were everything he wanted in immortality, they provided the right effects, but he wanted to make more than one, something the book claimed was impossible and not advisable.

To make matters worse there was no description of the spell or ritual needed to split the soul, so he went back to the shop where he bought the book and made the shopkeeper give him whatever texts there were about Horcruxes. There weren't many, and Riddle had to be careful since he had learnt the shopkeepers in that particular alley had more to lose from Aurors.

But Riddle was in luck. He found another book about Horcruxes, only unlike the first book it said that Curse-Breakers and Druids could destroy the soul pieces effortlessly. Annoyed, Riddle spent the rest of the summer tracking down a Curse-Breaker and gave him a potion under the pretence of being interested in his career while in truth he hadn't cared one jolt.

The Curse-Breaker had told him the true story about the Horcruxes, and later on, when he met a Druid, the young Voldemort had needed to change his plans.

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Rose had no intention of spending Christmas day with the Order of the Phoenix, so she decided to spend it in Muggle London. But getting out of Sirius' house was difficult. Crouch Junior had certainly adopted the man's mannerisms and paranoid outlook on life. Unfortunately, being stuffed into a trunk had not done Moody any favours. The man was more paranoid than ever. Moody seemed to be anticipating attacks every moment, and he had spells all over the entrance during the night to prevent anyone trying to get in or out until the grotty dump was a fortress.

Too bad they were useless on someone who could practice wand-less magic. All she had to do was create a magical bubble around the hall and deflect the spells away and let them snap back into place when she was out of the door. Rose had just left the doorway, magically scanning herself and found a few tracking charms on her person. After removing them she went on her way, patting her pocket which contained her shrunken trunk - she wasn't sure if she could be bothered going back to the so-called headquarters and just find a place to stay on her own, or something along those lines. Tying her scarf a little tighter, Rose headed off. Dawn would be in another hour and it would be Christmas day.

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The Order of the Phoenix was frantic. Rose Potter hadn't appeared all day, though at first they weren't that bothered since the girl seemed determined to avoid them. But Dumbledore had arrived at the headquarters to check on how things were going, and he'd asked about the teenager. To their relief they were able to get through into her bedroom, shocked by how different the room was to the rest of the house, but there was no sign of the girl. All they found was a note which read; "I wanted time to myself - don't wait up. I'm going to have a cracking good Christmas. PS - Don't ruin it for me, or I'll make sure what happened to Mr Weasley will seem like a lover's tap."

Dumbledore had gone mad with worry, and he'd ordered several members of the Order to head out into Muggle London to try to track the girl down. He tried to access the tracking charms he'd placed on her, but they didn't work. Christmas was officially cancelled for the Order of the Phoenix, and many of them were preparing to make Rose pay for it.

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Sitting in the Leaky Cauldron, eating her Christmas dinner, Rose smugly tucked into her meal. Once more Tom and his kitchen staff of House elves had outdone themselves - true, the old pub may make many muggles flinch at how disgusting the place was, but the place was charming. She had booked a table at the Cauldron on Christmas day, sending one of her elves to the pub to see about making a reservation in a different name.

Rose's plan was straight forward at the time - she would remain in Hogwarts and pretend to be eating in the kitchens, when in fact Dobby or Winky would bring her into Muggle London and she could enjoy the sights. Besides, it was only one day. It wasn't as if she was completely leaving Hogwarts for days on end, and besides, she knew Dumbledore wouldn't have allowed it.

As she ate her dinner, under disguise, Rose took a swig of fire whisky and blew out a breath, god that was strong, and ate her meal. As she ate her food, Rose thought more about what she'd discovered about Voldemort - she had tried her best to not really think about it after she'd gone through Riddle's mind, but now she felt sure it was safe.

Riddle had learnt from the Curse-Breaker no-one really knew when the first Horcrux had been invented, Herpo the Foul had been considered to be the first true inventor of the filthy things, but in fact in every country where soul magic had been explored the idea of splitting the soul and putting it into a container for immortality had existed long before the Dark Greek Wizard. So, no-one knew when the first Horcrux had been invented.

The ancient wizards had not had the same restrictions and restraints to studying magic and understanding it like the modern day variety, so there was little they couldn't accomplish in that kind of environment. The Ancient Egyptian Pharaohs had wanted to find a means to become immortal, but they had quickly put an end to the practice of splitting their souls and magic. For a start, the Horcruxes were vulnerable to attack, and they needed to be heavily protected in order to survive.

There were quite a few ways to destroy a Horcrux - the killing curse, basilisk venom, fiendfyre, but truthfully the best way was to simply drain their magic which was still connected to their creator. But it was good to know she had options.

Chewing a piece of turkey speared with a piece of potato, Rose could see why Voldemort had decided against his original plan to create multiple Horcruxes, but the worst was to come to help dig the grave on the idea forever though later events would bury it. Riddle had learnt from the Curse-Breaker a great deal about the history of a Horcrux and how they didn't make you immortal at all. True, they may partially allow you to live a little longer, but they could just as simply slice your lifespan in half like a knife cutting a piece of cake.

When the Curse-Breaker was asked to give him the requirements for the draining ritual, the man had given it to him before informing the nascent Dark Lord the Druids had a similar practice. After carefully wiping the Curse-Breaker's memory and sending him off on his merry way, Voldemort had tracked down some of the Druids that were still in the country.

The Druids were a reclusive people and real Druids practiced a very diluted form of magic. They weren't true wizards, but they deserved some respect after their contributions over the centuries. They possessed a rich history and culture, they had their own form of magic that allowed them to perform rituals and potions that were in some ways better than those used by wizards.

Smashed by Lord Voldemort. Most Dark Lords tended to ignore the Druids because they were so reclusive and pacifistic and weren't even a threat, but Voldemort had a good reason for launching savage attacks against the Druids, whose magic was completely unprepared for Voldemort's attacks.

Young Tom Riddle had managed to track some of the Druids down, and using magic to seriously torture one of them and forcing the same potion he'd used to make the Curse-Breaker speak, he'd learned about the ritual and a trap the ancient Druids had come out with after Merlin and Morgana had died or disappeared and left behind a power vacuum. The Druids had become sick and tired of the chaos caused by witches and wizards who fought and vied for power with each other, so they had let out information about the Horcrux and how they could help someone become immortal.

A few years later they had learnt a few had fallen into the trap, and after that, the Druids found the Horcruxes, and they drained them and the attempted takeovers were foiled. The ritual and the purpose behind it was something forgotten by the Ministry of Magic or suppressed by the Ministry because they were so stupid and thought that anything they didn't understand was dark.

Too bad the Druids hadn't forgotten the ritual as well. It took Voldemort only 8 days to learn about the true vulnerabilities of the Horcruxes and that they didn't make you immortal and there was nothing he could do about it, that were two rituals that could drain the soul pieces and he would be dead. Both rituals used a potion, and Voldemort had learnt how to make both of them in his desire to hunt down all knowledge about the lore surrounding the Horcruxes.

And now Rose knew how to make them.

After discovering the weaknesses of the Horcruxes, Voldemort had discovered another form of immortality that could help him do what he wanted. It was similar to the Horcrux idea, but instead of splitting his soul multiple times he would simply brand his followers with a symbol that would tie into his own magic. It was so simple, his followers would allow him to live on the mortal plane even something happened to him, and yet when he discovered another Dark Lord had used an identical idea he still had an interest in splitting his soul, Merlin knew why.

Rose chewed thoughtfully on a tough piece of turkey meat before washing it down with some fire-whiskey. Voldemort realised that since in other countries, the existence of Horcruxes was apparently well documented and known, it was likely a wizard as skilled as Dumbledore might work out what he'd done, but it was also possible he might encounter another wizard who could work it out. Voldemort brooded over these things for a while before he came up with a Plan.

Voldemort had asked the potions master at the time for information about the Horcruxes, bribing him and that was when Riddle laid down the groundwork, asking about the possibility of making more than one of the things and horrifying Slughorn with the prospect of more than one Horcrux, but the professor didn't tell the young Voldemort anything about how to create one of them. Then again he didn't need too. Voldemort covered his tracks as well as he could, but he left enough clues for someone like Dumbledore to piece them together.

Rose made an unhappy face. It was in that year Voldemort released the basilisk and started attacking the muggle-borns, believing that as covers went there would be no finer way to create a Horcrux. Like the second time the Chamber of Secrets was opened when Rose was twelve, Riddle had made sure none of the muggle-borns were killed until Myrtle by cleverly making the basilisk filter some of the deadly magic in its stare. While everyone was panicking about the attacks, Riddle was preparing the ritual to create the Horcrux.

He succeeded - at the expense of Myrtle's life. But before the ritual and knowing of the potential dangers, Voldemort had still considered making more than one Horcrux, but the first time convinced Riddle it was a bad idea. It took him a long time to recover, and even when he did recover his magic was different - it was still potent, but it felt as though it was a bit sluggish.

As she chewed thoughtfully on her food, Rose wondered what she could do. The diary Horcrux was gone, she had destroyed it before she even knew what it was. The Death Eaters were the problem, but Dumbledore wouldn't listen to anyone about them; she had ordered Winky or Dobby to spy on the Order meetings and come back with reports of whatever they heard. Dumbledore believed that by warding the kitchen the meetings would be private, but like all wizards, he underestimated House Elves. Rose was proud of Winky and Dobby and their versatility. In the future, she hoped to use their abilities to plot heists, but for now, she had to use them as bodyguards.

Some of the Order went along with Dumbledore's philosophy which was to use stunners and to try to redeem the Death Eaters. Hearing that and how Snape had been redeemed made Rose laugh, but she wasn't the only one. Moody and several other members of the group believed they should be fighting fire with fire, but Dumbledore refused to even allow it.

For a moment Rose wondered if she should tell Dumbledore about what she'd learnt, but she quickly decided against it - she had no idea what the old wizard planned to do with her, and it was clear that he suspected something about her. As she thought that Rose did what all smart people did when confronted with a line of logic - she followed it through to the conclusion.

She was eating a chunk of turkey dripping with gravy as she thought through the line.

Dumbledore was no longer looking or speaking to her though that was not a surprise because they didn't have scheduled talks despite what people like Snape and Malfoy thought.

He was always constantly encouraging her to inform him of anything to do with her scar.

He was constantly making her go back to the Dursleys, though that was impossible now they'd been kissed.

Dumbledore always brushed her off whenever she asked him something really important about Voldemort, and whenever it came to her scar he became even vaguer.

Everything came back to her scar. Rose had once liked the scar because it had given her a unique look, the Dursleys had told her she had gotten it in a car crash before Hagrid had come and rebuked what the filthy muggles had told her. But when she found out about the truth about the scar, she learnt to hate it, and she found it wasn't hard to hate it, what with how everyone had gawped and gaped at the sight of the bloody thing.

But it wasn't until her second year after everyone shunned her for speaking to snakes during that mess in the Duelling club that moron Lockhart had come up with as a means to boost his own image, that she learnt Voldemort had accidentally given her some of his abilities.

A cold chill suddenly came over Rose. She had never really given it too much thought before now, but because of her new knowledge about the Horcruxes, she couldn't help but wonder about the scar. Surely, it wasn't possible -? But what if-?

Rose stood up and after casting a quick notice-me-not around her table so then no one passing by could nick her food, she cast one on herself and went to the bathroom. She could have done this where she'd been sitting, but she had wanted to do this in private, and besides, she might find the toilet useful if she needed to puke.

Standing in front of the mirror, Rose reached into her pocket and drew out her wand, and with some careful work, managed to get the tip of the wand over the scar, and she said the incantation for detecting Horcruxes. After a second of waiting for the detection charm glowed red, and Rose had to fight down the urge to be sick.

How? How was this possible?

She had a Horcrux in her scar.

But how could this be when Voldemort had made up his mind a long time ago to only make one?

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After finishing off at the Leaky Cauldron, Rose walked determinedly back to Grimmauld Place - it would take time, but she had the time she needed to celebrate. Not only was it Christmas, but even with a Horcrux in her head, she knew of a way to deal with the foul thing and with Voldemort himself.

After she'd discovered the Horcrux in her scar, Rose had wondered if Voldemort had even known, but now she was sure it was unintentional. She came to that thought after she came across a window that had a small hole in it. The hole was large, but the wicked looking shards that stuck out like icicles drew her attention to the web-like cracks. The damaged glass looked as though the tiny pressure of her forefinger could shatter it.

That could be it - Voldemort may have made only one Horcrux because of the time he'd needed to recover, but the soul must have still been as damaged as this pane of glass. But how had it happened? As she stood in front of the glass, Rose guessed that more stuff happened around the night her parents were murdered - whatever her parents had done to protect her that night from the killing curse had torn Voldemort's soul out had probably also, accidentally, left her with a piece of his soul.

It was completely accidental, Rose realised, and she almost broke out laughing.

She had the means to beat him.

Feeling a bit happier, Rose went on her way. She still had a Christmas to explore, and she wasn't going to let the knowledge she had a chunk of Voldemort's soul in her head. But before that she needed to get a piece of jewellery in silver, as long as it was silver then it didn't matter what it was. Silver was important for the ritual because of the metal's properties. London was a massive city with hundreds of jewellery shops and it didn't take her long to find one small shop that sold silver jewellery.

Rose stood outside the shop, her eyes studying each piece before she concentrated on a small silver bracelet. She walked away, concentrating on the bracelet and it appeared in her pocket. Digging deep into her pocket she took the bracelet and shoved it into the inner lining of her coat and went on her way before she came across a gay club.

Standing outside the door, Rose hesitated. Apart from the realisation she had a Horcrux in her scar, her Christmas had gone amazingly, but she felt that something was missing. She smiled shyly and walked through the doors where men and women were kissing each other. Rose smiled at a few of the girls who were kissing when two invited her other to them.

When she sat down they smiled at her. One of them was a brunette girl and the other was blonde.

"Hi, I'm Rose," Rose introduced herself.

"Lucy," the blonde smiled.

"Kat," the brunette said. "Happy Christmas."

"Happy Christmas. Do you come here often?" Rose asked, looking around.

"Yeah, we usually come here to make new friends and get involved with other girls," Lucy said. "It helps us get away from any scorn we get."

"Do you get much?"

"Quite a bit," Kat admitted. "When we came out we were gay, a lot of our friends were pleased for us, but more than a few were uncomfortable."

"My mum threw me out," Lucy said sadly as she remembered what happened. "My dad took me in, but I could tell he was uncomfortable with it just a touch, but he has gay friends who're nice. What about yourself, how do your family feel about it?"

Rose's looked sad. "My parents are dead, they died when I was a baby. I was raised by my mum's sister and her husband. They're both dead now, killed in a car crash when I wasn't there, but I would never have told them about being a lesbian. They considered anything abnormal to be, shall we say, unnatural. In that kind of environment, you learn the hard way to keep your gob shut. I had a best friend who I confided into, but I never knew she was homophobic. She was all about rights, fairness for all, and yet she'd a hypocrite. Well, let's just say a lot of friendships died after I told her, and I was kicked off my….netball team, just for being a lesbian."

Lucy and Kat looked at her in amazement. "God, I thought we had it bad," Kat whispered in disbelief. "Sorry, Rose."

"No, it's okay." Rose smiled softly. "Anyway, I decided to get out and have a real Christmas. I can't stay long, but that doesn't mean I can't have fun, right?"

Kat and Lucy grinned. Slowly Kat leaned forwards and kissed Rose full on the mouth gently. Making sure her occlumency barriers were keeping this memory away from the Horcrux so Voldemort never found out about her two new friends, Rose kissed the girl back passionately.

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Rose had a smile on her face and a bounce to her step as she approached the street Grimmauld place was located, but as she approached the house where the Order was currently housed in her good mood faded a little bit. Kat and Lucy had been one of the lighter sides to her Christmas this year, and she'd hated to leave them, but there was a strong possibility of running into them again but only after she had dealt with Voldemort.

By the time she had reached the top step, Rose about to unlock the door and walk in when she felt a wand tip be driven into her back. "Don't move, Death Eater!" she heard Tonks say in a frightened but eager voice. "How did you find out where we are based, was it Potter?!"

Rose rolled her eyes though it made her sick these people believed she was in league with the psychopath who'd torn away so much from her, and she pushed her hood down slowly so she couldn't startle the stupid woman, and she turned around calmly, not really frightened by Tonks' wand happy attitude. "I'm afraid not," she said sardonically. "I may have problems with you and your gang, but I wouldn't tell that snaked faced piece of shit anything."

Tonks went from excited to downright annoyed. "You've had us waste time all day, Potter," she snapped. "I had plans today, plans which didn't involve chasing after your spoilt backside."

"Who told you I was spoilt?" Rose asked folding her arms curiously, her desire to get into the house put aside. "Was it those stupid books about me, or the general feeling the rest of your stupid group have?"

"Does it matter, after all, you are a pervert-," Tonks said, but Rose who had just about had enough and not really caring about the consequences lifted her hand and gently squeezed Tonks' larynx. The Auror gasped, her hands flying instinctively to her throat. She choked as she looked at the upraised hand of the raven-haired witch.

"I am sick of you telling me I'm something I'm not," Rose said in a voice that froze Tonks' blood. "All of you have made assumptions, but believe me, in time the usefulness of the Order of the Phoenix will be at an end. Now open this door, and keep your opinions to yourself or I will kill you and no one will find your body, you puffed up bitch!"

Terrified, Tonks opened the door. "Not a word about our little talk or I will make sure you know what I'm capable of," Rose hissed as the Auror passed her. When the door opened they found three members of the Order, including Sirius and Mrs Weasley. The three froze at the sight of Tonks entering the house with Rose in tow.

"Rose-," Sirius hissed before his eyes widened as he saw the Auror walk into the hall. "Wait, Tonks, don't trip over the troll's leg-!"

But it was too late.

CRASH!

Instantly there was an awful screaming as two heavy, moth-eaten curtains flew back, revealing a wizened old woman who screeched so loudly, screaming abuse at everyone.

"I'm sorry!" Tonks wailed as she climbed to her feet, but her voice was too low to be heard. Rose winced at the volume of the screeching and decided to put an end to it. She stepped forward, and let out a bang with her magic.

"SHUT UP!" She screamed, ignoring the sounds of people rushing to see what was going on. The old woman sneered at her. "Who are you then, dearie? Another Mudblood?"

"Rose Potter."

"OUT! GET OUT OF MY HOUSE! FILTHY PERVERT, DON'T THINK I DON'T HEAR ANYTHING IN THIS HOUSE! DAUGHTER OF THAT FILTHY MUDBLOOD BITCH WHO DARED TO POLLUTE THE PURITY OF THE FAMILY-!"

Rose created another bang, but this time she added it by shredding a part of the woman's portrait. The woman screamed in agony. "Never insult my mother like that again," Rose snarled. "Unlike the lazy bitches in the magical world, she stood up against the half-blooded freak that murdered them! Yeah, the so-called Heir of Slytherin was a half-blood, a liar, a murderer. I don't care if you believe me or not, but I will leave you something to think about."

Rose closed her eyes for a second and then clicked her fingers. Suddenly one of the nearby portraits glowed electric blue as it caught fire, the witch in the frame screeching with pain before the portrait turned into a pile of ash.

"Portraits in this house, pay attention; I've cast a spell on all of the portraits," Rose said over the din, "so each time this stupid old hag raises her voice, three of you will be burnt out of existence at random. I don't normally like destroying portraits, but this stupid bitch has signed your death warrants. I am not going to take the spell down, nothing you do can take it down. Not even House Elf magic can do it, I know there is a House-elf serving this house, and he will never unlock the spell. Every time she opens her mouth, curse her for being your doom. Thank you."

Rose clicked her fingers again and the curtains were drawn and she was about to head off when Sirius stopped her. "Not so fast!" he snapped.

"What?" Rose asked bemused before she chuckled. "Oh yeah, I forgot. I left this house without permission. But I needed to get out, besides no harm was done."

"No harm?" Sirius was beside himself with rage, and the other Order members were no better. "You go off on your own, you ruin other people's Christmases, you force us to abandon our plans just to look for you?"

Rose looked at him with her face crinkled in mock confusion. "What plans could you have? You're stuck in this house because the rat escaped."

Sirius shook his head. "Merlin, I can't believe I broke out of Azkaban for you. I should have gone for Pettigrew and forgotten about you, you really are the reason your father is dead-Urk!"

Suddenly Rose held out her hand and Sirius was lifted off the ground his hands to his throat as he choked.

"That's all you care about, my father?" Rose snapped scornfully, all the time holding back the urge to break down and cry that her godfather, the man who was supposed to be looking after and protecting her from the dangers of the world, was in fact incredibly selfish and only cared about her dead father. "If anyone is responsible for his death, it's you! You changed Secret Keepers all because you knew there was a spy in your ranks, but instead of using magical oaths and checking each other over for Dark Marks, you didn't try to find out who the spy was. You, your stupid Order….. couldn't you have used your common sense? How hard is it to ask for a magical oath?"

Sirius choked harder while the Order members tried to stop Rose, but she generated a shield with her magic. "You think I'm disgusting just 'cos I'm a lesbian, that I don't fit in with your standards. You're hardly amazing yourselves. But you, Sirius, when you sent me that letter, telling me I was a disgrace, I was so tempted to inform the Ministry where you were. But I didn't - it had nothing to do with love. Love doesn't exist, I see that now. Well, love for you. Who in their right mind would want you, you lazy, pathetic, shadow of a man? You're selfish."

"You left Azkaban to find Pettigrew, but you planned to kill him. Couldn't you have stunned him and taken him to the Ministry; they may be corrupt bastards, and Fudge is a moron who won't be a problem to me for much longer. But you could've been freed. It worked out for me because you are just not fit to be a guardian to anyone or anything. I wouldn't even trust you with a woodlouse."

Rose cancelled the spell holding Sirius up and he collapsed to the ground heavily, choking hoarsely while the Order members tried to break through the shield. The old Marauder and everyone listened silently as the teenager walked up the stairs, the only sounds being her footsteps.

The girl was only a few steps up when she stopped but she didn't turn around. "I've got the message Sirius, but let me tell you; you're right, I'm not your goddaughter. In fact, I went to Gringotts today and found I could revoke your status as my godfather, and I have. You have no idea how much I regret having to do that, but truthfully I don't care. Soon, you and I can go our separate ways. Once we do that, we never have to see each other again. You can go back to daydreaming about your pointless pranks with my dad. My mum and I will not be involved, just how you always wanted. It will be just for you blokes. TTFN 'til later, former godfather of mine."

Rose walked up the stairs and entered her bedroom, knowing instinctively the Order had been inside the bedroom. They had also tried to transfigure the decor she had put up, for reasons beyond her comprehension but the spells had held.

She was only just holding onto her composure and she waved her hand at the door to keep it closed and she went to the bathroom to prepare for bed.

When she climbed under the covers, Rose cried herself to sleep.

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At first, Rose actually enjoyed the occlumency lessons she had with Snape. Not long after her little encounter with the Order in the hallway at Sirius's dump of a house, she had been summoned down and told to meet Professor Snape and was told Dumbledore had arranged for him to teach her the mind arts.

The idea of extra lessons with the greasy and disgusting potions master had annoyed her, but she had decided to go through with it. From a logical perspective Rose could understand the need for the lessons, but because of her awareness of the Horcrux, she wondered if these lessons would work when her own attempts to keep the thing out of her mind had met with mixed results.

Rose actually found herself enjoying the lessons with Snape because while the man hated her for reasons she couldn't even be bothered to work out, his legilimency attacks actually helped her strengthen her mind. Snape had the subtlety of a machine gun with all the attacks, and Rose had to learn how to be creative in order to keep him out of her mind.

Her shield scheme was simple - instead of a massive walled fortress that any reasonably patient person would explore to find a weakness, her approach was to place all her bad memories out in front before someone found a very thick fog and then an awful storm, all the time not noticing that her mind was hidden beneath an Invisibility Cloak. The defences past that point were Rose's secret. When these lessons had first begun, the defence scheme had been untested.

Snape had quickly seen to that.

Rose actually enjoyed seeing the greasy bastard fume because while he kept saying to her "clear your mind" her mind was incredibly clear while she thought of new ways to protect her mind from his nosy probing.

But then things began to go downhill.

When Rose began these little 'remedial potions lessons' she had been good at wand-less magic, but after she'd begun she had had problems. She had suddenly become more dependent on her wand, and worse, the Other had been cut off. It was as though someone had thrown blankets over the voice in her mind to try to block it out. But her mind quickly detected the problem after only three days. One of the benefits of some private study in the mind arts was she could place her mind somewhere where no one could reach it.

Rose had decided to go to Madam Pomfrey when she'd decided to swallow her pride. The nurse hadn't been too happy to see her, and the teenager had called the nurse up on her healer oaths, something the woman had liked even less.

So, sitting on her 'favourite bed' Rose waited for the nurse to finish waving her wand over her. When Madam Pomfrey was finished, she pulled away in surprise.

"You've got potions in your system," the woman whispered in disbelief, "and judging from the scans you've got quite a few."

Rose swallowed. "Do you know what kind they are?"

"Yes, one of them is a love potion. Have you felt anything towards someone in the school lately?"

Rose made a face. "I had a fleeting thought about Ron Weasley," she admitted, "but I quickly squashed it. It happened the day after I returned from my holiday."

Madam Pomfrey made a face. "Hmm."

"What are the others?"

"There are a few potions designed to limit your ability to learn and comprehend magic," the nurse explained, "have you been having problems?"

Rose was silent for a moment. "Can I tell you something important, something that will remain strictly between ourselves?"

Madam Pomfrey was instantly defensive. "Of course I would," she said and she gave her oath.

That satisfied the teenage witch, who visibly relaxed. "When I was living on the streets after I escaped my muggle relatives, I discovered I could do things with my mind. It wasn't until later I discovered I had magic. It was draining on me at first before I discovered that the energy I was using to power my spells was around me, so I decided to use that energy instead of what I had, and it worked," Rose began, "when I came to Hogwarts, I relied on my wand to help me master the spells and get used to them. I don't use my wand for anything except for show, but I use it to learn new spells. But for the last few days, I've become dependent on my wand. It's like someone has decided my wand-less magic isn't necessary and take the law into their own hands, and chained it up."

Madam Pomfrey shook her head, not in disbelief, but in anger at the sheer stupidity of the idea someone would go so far as to hurt a child.

"I can't help you with finding out who gave you those potions, but I can help you get them out," she said. The witch left Rose and disappeared into her potions storeroom for a few moments before coming out again with a small bottle filled with an aquamarine coloured substance in one hand and a solid black bucket in the other. The label read 'Flushing potion.'

Madam Pomfrey placed the bucket on the bedside table. "You'd better get in the bed, Rose," she advised, "you've got quite a few potions in your system, and they need to come out."

"So I have to spend the night here?" Rose asked but she knew the answer long before the nurse replied. The Other was telling her that that would happen.

"Yes. Have you ever heard of stomach pumping in the muggle world, well this is the same principle. Now come along, get undressed in get yourself in that bed," Madam Pomfrey ordered.

After Rose did as she was told, she took the potion with a little bit of concern. What followed was a long night of projectile vomiting into the bucket.

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"You wanted to see me, Professor McGonagall?" Rose's face was impassive as she entered the Transfiguration teacher's office, noting at once the number of pamphlets on the woman's desk. With OWLs, this year careers day was also here, and Rose had been prepared not to meet anyone about what she might want to do for her future.

McGonagall's reaction to her homosexuality had not been pleasant, and Rose had caught a few off-putting remarks about how her parents would be ashamed of her, not realising the girl didn't really care about her parent's opinion since they were both dead.

Honestly, Rose had never truly liked McGonagall - the woman was weak-willed, overworked and she had made it clear that nothing she said would be listened to. She had caught the woman's expression when she'd been accused of being the one behind the attacks in her second year, and she knew McGonagall had come to believe the lies as well.

But for now the woman seemed to be trying to make some effort to be welcoming and polite, but she eyes quickly picked out the pink-clad toad.

Umbridge had been following her around for the last few days, still trying to provoke her. Rose wondered how long it would be before the odious woman got the hint it wasn't going to happen.

Just seeing the odious woman was enough to make her ill, and she had had enough grief thanks to spending a whole night in the hospital wing and puking out every potion she'd been taking without her knowledge. What made it worse was finding out who had given her the potions.

Sirius Black.

Molly Weasley.

Albus Dumbledore.

Severus Snape.

Madam Pomfrey had been horrified by the final two but Rose had allowed her to make out a report for the DMLE.

"Yes, Miss Potter," McGonagall's voice brought Rose's attention back to her. "I would like to discuss your future in the magical world."

Rose lifted an eyebrow. "I know careers meetings are on this year, discussed by the Heads of House to their students, but I thought the other Gryffindors had made it clear I wasn't one of them anymore," she pointed out, "so why am I here?"

She wasn't trying to be difficult, but McGonagall's lips pursed. "Be that as it may, I have been asked by the Headmaster to take care of your case."

Ah, so you agree with the rest of the jackals in your house that I shouldn't be around anymore. How nice of you to confirm it for me. But what worried her the most was Dumbledore's interest in her case. He probably had to twist McGonagall's arm, though Rose doubted it was difficult - McGonagall would do whatever Dumbledore told her to do with a minimum amount of effort. Thanks to the Other, she could remember that cold night in November after her parents were murdered. She knew what McGonagall had said to the old man, but the old bitch had caved in without too much effort.

Hagrid had just accepted it, after all, if the Great Albus Dumbledore said it was for the best, then it was.

Rose had never trusted or liked Hagrid or McGonagall and she had never really given them a thought.

Letting out a silent sigh under her breath, Rose sat down. The sooner this was finished the better. She wasn't in the mood for the Gryffindors today. When the first Quidditch game had come up, she had been told - politely - by Angelina who was now the captain now Wood was gone, the other girls didn't feel comfortable with her on the team, so she'd been asked to leave. Rose had left bitterly, but she'd accepted it quietly. She found she didn't care about Quidditch anymore.

But Alicia and Katie had changed their minds after the Gryffindor team lost spectacularly, and they'd begged her to come back but she'd told them the answer was no. There was more to life than a stupid game, but she hadn't told them that.

She also had to admire the nerve of Ron and Hermione in coming to her in order to start and teach a defence club. They must've been desperate if they were going to ask a "queer dyke" for help, but she'd turned them down.

"What careers are there?" Rose asked neutrally.

Like her, McGonagall seemed to want to get this meeting out of the way, but she didn't care what the older witch was thinking. Rose paid only half an ear of attention as McGonagall began to talk about the careers available; the teenager had the thought the woman had fully expected her to give out an answer without having to go through this, but truthfully Rose wanted to think about her potential future.

Healing was out, no doubt about it; she didn't fancy working in St. Mungos and even if things cooled down about her sexuality, she had no real desire of being the only healer people went too to solve their problems. Rose was just about to open her mouth to suggest something when McGonagall said something before she could even assemble her words together.

"Miss Potter, Rose, the Headmaster himself," Rose was sure that out of the corner of her eye Umbridge stiffened slightly and leaned forwards in what she probably thought was a subtle manner, "asked me about whether you'd be interested in becoming an Auror."

"Why would he want to know that?" Rose asked curiously.

McGonagall was about to answer when they were interrupted.

"Hem-hem."

Rose clenched her fists angrily at the sound of that annoying cough. Why couldn't the stupid woman just get on with it and come out and say what was on her mind? "You can thank the Headmaster, Professor," Rose addressed the Transfiguration professor before the toad could even speak, "but I don't want to become an Auror."

Even Umbridge looked surprised.

"May I ask why?" McGonagall asked, there was something in her expression - distress? Rose knew her dad had been an Auror himself, and she wondered if this was just another attempt by the Wizarding world to force her into a James shaped mould.

Rose had to use her occlumency barriers to stop herself showing too much emotion, what was it to Dumbledore that she ask about being an Auror or even showing an interest?

"In the last few months, the Ministry of Magic has done nothing but abuse me in the press, why would I want to work for them?"

"It's just as well," Umbridge tittered; the sound made Rose want to leap over and strangle her, "the Ministry of Magic would never hire you."

Rose was tempted to ask the woman what she meant by that, but she decided to ignore the woman. Making sure that her contempt for her was visible, Rose turned to face the professor again. "I was actually curious about being a Curse-Breaker," she said, "I think it sounds interesting."

"Well, since you dropped out of Divination and took Ancient Runes, that would be a career choice you can potentially take," McGonagall said, sounding pleased the meeting was going as she hoped. "You'd need good grades in several of your subjects, particularly Arithmancy, but you have good grades in many of your subjects."

McGonagall 's "if you bothered to attend those classes" went unsaid, but truthfully Rose didn't truly care. The OWL grade wasn't dependent on the classroom grade. She could've taken the OWL had ditched the class, and she could still get the grade. It made no difference.

"Hem-Hem," Umbridge coughed again.

Rose turned her head in the woman's direction, ignoring McGonagall and the teachers' attempts to just ignore the woman. Umbridge didn't seem the type to stand up for that, and besides like a band-aid being ripped off, the sooner she got it out the better. "Is something wrong?"

"Yes, dear," Umbridge simpered (Rose hated it when people simpered around her, it made her think they were either stupid or they wanted something), "the Ministry would make sure you didn't become a Curse-Breaker."

A hundred gloriously painful tortures entered Rose's mind as she studied the woman in the room. "Why would they care?"

"Miss Potter," McGonagall said slowly, clearly warning her not to say too much, but she didn't really care. "Last time I checked, the Ministry doesn't have any influence over the goblins, so how can they prevent me becoming a Curse-Breaker? What is the point?"

"The point, dear, is many people do not consider you to be a witch because of your…..perversion," Umbridge tittered, saying the last word with a nasty giggle.

Rose was tempted to grab that stupid quill and transfigure it into a metal knitting needle so she could shove it into the woman's throat. "That's it? That's the only reason the Ministry would have to interfere? Do you honestly think I care what you people think about me?" she asked mildly while she prepared to leave. There was little point to a careers interview with this woman nearby telling her that her choices for a career were impossible just because she preferred her own sex. "Can I have the Curse-Breaker pamphlet anyway?" She asked McGonagall.

The Transfiguration mistress passed it to her, making sure their skin didn't touch as if afraid she'd catch a disease. "I promise I will help you become a Curse-Breaker, Miss Potter," McGonagall promised but the teenager picked up on the clear lack of faith in her voice, she believed Umbridge had a point.

Rose, not trusting herself to speak, nodded and left the room, ignoring Umbridge as she walked out.

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Because she knew about the Horcrux in her scar, Rose had spent some of her time accessing Voldemort's plans and schemes. One of them was forcing her to go into the Department of Mysteries to get a prophecy relating to both him and her though they both knew a small verse of it, so when she received a vision during her History of Magic OWL exam, she decided to inform Dumbledore. The Headmaster had been forced to escape the school once Ron and Hermione's little Defence club was found out, but that was down to the club not taking more precautions against the possibility someone would rat them out.

Rose had heard that Marietta Edgecombe had been the one to rat the group out because her mother was a staunch loyalist to Fudge, so she had told Umbridge. Personally, while she felt the duo could've done better when it came to ensuring no-one talked, she had to admire the curse placed on Edgecombe; granted, Rose would've preferred something a bit more painful, but Granger wouldn't do that.

But putting aside Granger's similarities to Umbridge in personality in how they blackmailed and hurt their victims and humiliated those that crossed them, Rose was more interested in sending a message to Dumbledore.

And she knew precisely where he was. The Ministry of Magic, led by Fudge, believed Dumbledore was in hiding somewhere in the country where he would be plotting to take over the Ministry, but Rose knew that wasn't true. Dumbledore had left Hogwarts for only a day before he returned. She knew because she had asked Dobby to spy on the office after Dumbledore had fled, she had hoped to break into the head's office and find out whether or not Dumbledore had made any plans.

Unfortunately, her plans for a bit of burglary was put on hold when her House Elf returned and informed her Dumbledore was sitting in his throne-like nothing had happened. It had made her laugh! She knew Dumbledore was a wily old bastard, but she hadn't expected that. Better yet McGonagall knew about it, and so Rose knew of the password.

Confidently, Rose walked towards the corridor where the Headmaster's office was, letting her magic out in case one of the Goon squad as she'd begun calling the Inquisitional squad was lurking nearby. She stood outside the massive eagle entrance to the office and she said confidently, "Cadbury's caramel."

The Eagle topped staircase began to ascend and Rose stepped onto one of the steps and waited until the staircase had reached the top. As she approached the door, she knocked on the door, letting her magic scan the interior. She opened her eyes and realised Fawkes and Dumbledore were inside the room, she could feel their auras.

"Come in, Rose."

Rose had to hide the smirk on her face at the sound of slight surprise in Dumbledore's voice, but she opened the door. The office had not changed that much since her last time in this place. "Headmaster, Voldemort is about to break into the Department of Mysteries," she said without preamble, this wasn't the time for the usual pleasantries. "I think he's going after a prophecy," she went on, smirking inwardly at Dumbledore's start with surprise, and the headmaster looked at her in shock, forgetting he wasn't supposed to be looking at her.

For nearly a whole year the man had avoided her and hadn't looked her in the eye, but now his whole attention was on her.

"How do you know about that?" Dumbledore asked before he realised she hadn't said the prophecy, but a prophecy.

Rose did her best not to notice, the less Dumbledore knew the better. "Well, it is obvious, really, isn't it? The Department of Mysteries holds all kinds of things, and prophecies are mysterious things. Besides, Voldemort's been talking about the two so the connection isn't hard to see."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Rose sneered. "How many times have we had a conversation?" she asked though if there had even been an opportunity, she would never have said a word. "Aren't you going to go?"

Dumbledore seemed surprised. "I'm surprised you yourself haven't tried to leave the grounds, Rose-," he began, but Rose interrupted him.

"What, tangle with that psychopath again? Oh no, I like living, even if the magical world has proven to be a shit hole," Rose replied, "I think I'll stay here, let the adults do the work for a change."

Dumbledore didn't seem happy but he stood up, but before he left he turned to address her again. "How did you know I was still in the castle?"

"Lucky guess," Rose replied without giving too much away.

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The duel between Lord Voldemort and Albus Dumbledore was splashed across the front page of the Daily Prophet, the headline reading; "HE'S BACK!" The confirmed return of Lord Voldemort was all the students at Hogwarts could talk about, and sitting at the end of the Gryffindor table on one of her rare appearances to the hall, Rose Potter was able to read the reactions of everyone.

The worrying thing about the article was the mention of the prophecy. Apparently, when the Ministry arrived, the sphere it had been recorded in had smashed on the ground, and Voldemort and everybody had heard it say that only one who was marked would be able to defeat the Dark Lord. She was a hero again, it seemed.

Some of the students were pleased by the return of the Dark Lord, while the majority were horrified that a new magical war was going to break out again. For those students who had been affected by the last war, the expressions of terror on their faces was so heart-rending for their neighbours they needed a lot of reassurance Voldemort wasn't going to appear out of anywhere.

Rose read the newspaper articles more than once, trying to work out what was going to happen in the magical world now and how it affected her plans. The truth was it didn't really change them, but she didn't know what Dumbledore would do.

The articles made her want to laugh - the Daily Prophet really were a bunch of idiots. They had done a 180 where Dumbledore and she were concerned, and now they were singing their praises though they were clearly still a bit…..touchy about her sexuality. Rose didn't care, she'd already come to the realisation nothing she said or did would change their minds about that.

She noticed a few people looking her way, but she ignored them. She was about to leave the Great Hall when someone called her name. Rose turned and found McGonagall approaching her. "The Headmaster would like to see you," she said, her voice sounding more polite than it had been in a while.

Rose followed the woman to the Headmaster's office and remained standing while the wizard studied her silently even long after McGonagall had left. Finally, Dumbledore broke the silence. "I must thank you, Rose, for your information last night. If it hadn't been for you then Lord Voldemort may have caused more damage, though it is regrettable everyone now knows of the prophecy."

Rose bit her lip. "Is that the reason why he came after me because some hack came out with a mumbo-jumbo poem?" she demanded. "Is that the reason why my parent were murdered and I became an orphan?"

Dumbledore sighed. "I'm afraid so," he replied. "Unfortunately, my attempts last night to keep the prophecy quiet fell on deaf ears; Cornelius has never really been intelligent, he knows he's on borrowed time. He has spent the past year pursuing you and I in the vain belief we are plotting against him. He sent Dolores Umbridge to Hogwarts to discover evidence, but now those plans have been foiled."

Rose didn't comment on Umbridge. "So, in order to try to safeguard his position, Fudge has released the information about the prophecy to try to make himself look good for some desperate reason I can't work out?"

"Precisely. Like I said, Cornelius is not very bright. I can't see him lasting long. The prophecy may have granted him time, time Voldemort will not allow him to have. Unfortunately, he doesn't realise his precious career is now over," Dumbledore said, grimacing at the way he said precious career like he had a bad taste in his mouth.

Rose quirked an eyebrow, getting the feeling that despite his outward demeanour the Headmaster had been just as frustrated by Fudge as she had, but she'd heard Fudge had spent the majority of his time bombarding Dumbledore with letter after letter asking for advice about what he should do. Some people could claim Dumbledore had the patience of a saint, but Rose knew that everyone had a little voice in their minds, and she could imagine that Dumbledore's little voice had been saying about Fudge.

The old wizard was probably thankful the soon to be ex-Minister was going to be kicked out.

But Dumbledore got to the point of the meeting. "I am sorry, Rose, about a lot of things that've gone wrong with you; how you were treated by the school, how the Order have reacted towards you, but more importantly this burden you face."

Rose was silent.

Dumbledore licked his lips, clearly perturbed by her lack of response. But then Rose spoke. "This prophecy, how come you didn't prepare me for it? I know Voldemort's a powerful wizard; I'd be stupid not too. I fought him in the graveyard last year, and he was a monster. You could've at least made sure I had private lessons or something along those lines, teaching me how to survive so I could've had a better chance. Instead, you let me cope with schoolwork, and waste my time on that stupid Quidditch pitch."

"I wanted you to enjoy what was left of your childhood," Dumbledore replied.

Rose closed her eyes, seriously resisting the urge to yell. Shouting wasn't going to make any difference, and besides with what she had in mind for Voldemort she wouldn't need to fight the bastard. "I never had one," she pointed out, "my childhood started to die the moment my mum and dad were murdered. It continued to die as I was forced to escape the Dursleys; you might say they were my only family, but just because my mum and Petunia were related that doesn't automatically mean she was a good person, and the less said about Vernon the better. I had to learn how to survive on the streets, Professor. I had to learn how to become tough, and it's not a safe environment. Last year the last vestiges of my childhood died because I made the mistake of thinking that Hermione Granger, the biggest hypocrite on the planet, was open-minded enough to accept I'm a lesbian. What did she do? She not only called me disgusting, she blabbed to the rest of the school."

"I was cursed, threatened with rape, not that the bastards were punished; the teachers did not give a damn. You didn't seem to care either, sitting in this office thinking about the trap you were setting for whoever put my name in the goblet."

Dumbledore shook his head. "Do you really think I didn't want to help you?" he asked rhetorically. "I don't really care who you're attracted to, Rose. Your life is your own. It is not for me or anybody else to decide, but you have to understand the magical world values family, and when it came out you were interested in your own sex, the magical world saw you as abandoning your family."

"You mean being with women means there will be no more Potters?" Rose asked.

"Essentially yes. You are the only child of Lily and James Potter, and the more practical wizards see that as another family line about to die. So many lines have died out because of Riddle," Dumbledore explained. "Unfortunately, there is also the issue that there aren't that many homosexual people in the magical world, so as a result no-one understands it, and when people don't understand something they lash out. Ironically, its one of the few things a few of the muggle-borns and purebloods would agree on. Granted, I think you'll find some will understand, but not all of them."

Rose listened to the headmaster speak and she could see the genuine sorrow in his eyes.

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Sneaking around the Hogwarts Express underneath a notice-me-not charm, Rose felt that her plan was going to be easy to accomplish. In the past few days since Voldemort's return had been 'confirmed,' if indeed you could say that given how he was seen within the Ministry of Magic itself, the panic level had risen in the country. The only people that seemed happy were those who had grown up with Voldemort's poison being poured into their brains from an early age. Rose only hoped that when she performed the ritual and Voldemort was finally ended, people like Pansy Parkinson and Draco Malfoy lost a lot more than their magic, if they did end up marked as Death Eaters. It might be cruel and callous, but Rose didn't care. Draco and his gang of Slytherins - Crabbe, Goyle, Zabini, Parkinson, and her Slytherin girls, and Nott had given her a lot of grief over the years. In her mind, if they were reduced to being squibs then she would be overjoyed to see them lose the one thing that separated them from the human race.

The fact she might be killing people around her age meant nothing to her.

Rose was relieved when she found one of the carriages with an empty doorway. Briefly, she scanned it with her magic and wasn't really surprised when she detected the charms on the doorway to prevent the students from accidentally unlatching the doors and falling from the train when it was moving. Reaching into her pocket she took out her shrunken trunk and resized it, and took out the Firebolt she had inside. Rose was tempted to buy herself a second, far less fast broomstick during the summer holidays, but she felt she had more than enough to do with her time. With a wave of her hand, she diverted the charms much like she had done with the spells at the Order's HQ, and she opened the door and got on the broomstick. The wind slammed right into Rose's face as she mentally controlled the broomstick to fly at the same speed so then she could close the door and reset the charms on it.

Dumbledore had told her during their last meeting that because the Dursley's had….. died since the Dementors Umbridge had sent had sucked their souls out, though truthfully Rose doubted anyone who knew and hated the family and the rest of Dudley's mob would be able to tell the difference, there was no-where else safe for Rose to be staying at for the summer.

That left the Order's Headquarters.

Rose had no intention of staying over at that miserable house, and she wondered if she could get away with reducing the dreary place to a pile of rubble. Nah, it wasn't worth it. Besides if she went with Dumbledore's plan to get her there, when would she have no opportunity to carry out the ritual? She needed ingredients and she doubted the Order would lift a finger to help.

As she flew away from the railway line but keeping the train in sight as she followed from a high altitude so no one could see her, and the notice-me-not charm was still in place. Rose idly wondered how the Order of the Phoenix would react when they discovered she wasn't onboard with the rest of the students, but that wasn't her problem; the Order had made it clear she was something Dumbledore had foisted on her, and some of the members like Tonks and Molly Weasley had enjoyed being spiteful towards her simply because she was a lesbian like it was their own business. No, the Order would just hinder her activities, and she needed to focus on the ritual. If the Order moaned and whined to Dumbledore about not taking her back to their precious hideout then why should she care?

Besides, something told her that Ron and Hermione would be there. The three of them hadn't interacted much during the year, and Rose was content to make sure it stayed that way.

Arriving in Muggle London before the train, Rose locked the broomstick away and pulled the hood on her jacket up so she could walk about without anyone paying much attention to her face. Stuffing her hand into her pocket as she passed a cashpoint, Rose resisted the urge to smirk until she had passed the money machine. She had just nicked a fistful of cash. Just what she needed for a fare on the tube and get a bite to eat.

Stopping off at a quaint little sandwich shop, Rose bought herself a chicken and salad mayo sandwich and grabbed a bottle of coke before heading for the nearest Tube station. After paying for her fare, she headed for the platform and waited for the train, thankful that she wasn't going too deep underground. It would take 16 minutes for her to arrive at the station she wanted, so she had time.

When the Circle Line train pulled into the station, she found a seat near one of the doors, hemmed in by another passenger. She sat down and ate her sandwich.

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Why did Rose Potter have to be so infuriating? Albus Dumbledore was frustrated when he got the news from the Order members sent to the platform when the Express pulled into the station that the girl wasn't there. He had known the girl was at the age where rebellion was commonplace, but surely she knew this was not the time to fall into the typical pattern of teenage behaviour?

The year had not gone as badly as he'd anticipated. True, Cornelius' stupidity had known no bounds and being forced to go "on the run" had been irritating but since that stupid Umbridge woman hadn't been able to enter the Headmaster's office - a clear sign of defiance from the school itself - she hadn't realised he had been hiding up here the whole time, forcing the Aurors to waste their time trying to find him elsewhere.

Well, he wouldn't call it hiding exactly, but with only Minerva and Severus being allowed to venture up here through the fire network, it was the perfect place to hide.

Albus had enough problems right now without the Girl who Lived adding to them, though she was always one of his problems. The Ministry was in shambles. Voldemort and his followers had caused a great deal of damage, far more than could be expected from a so-called "dead man" as Fudge had described him. The Wizengamot and the people of the magical world now saw the dangers, and Dumbledore had used his contacts in the magical newspapers to make things worse for Fudge. Thanks to what was being printed, everyone now knew that Dumbledore and Rose Potter had been telling the truth about Voldemort's return and how Fudge had wasted 12 months on some petty crusade to crush a conspiracy to undermine and take over the Ministry, something that wasn't even there. Dumbledore hadn't even done it in secret either, he had personally said in the articles that if he had wanted the Minister role, he would have taken it a long time ago.

Dumbledore wasn't a man who gave into the temptation to being petty and vindictive, but even he couldn't help but feel a smidgen of sadistic glee at the thought of the bumbling fool finally finding life difficult after spending nearly 20 years in power and getting a big head out of it. The only problem was Fudge was still Minister, though that was probably going to change. The articles had screamed how Fudge had heard a year ago about Voldemort's return and the loss of time in preparation would now cost them all. Fudge was now on borrowed time, and between the Ministry and the Order, Dumbledore's own time was limited.

But while he was frustrated by Rose just disappearing the way she had he could understand some of her reasons beyond it being a childish act of rebellion. The Order of the Phoenix hadn't simply left her alone for a couple of weeks, why would they do that in a month or so?

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After the Dursleys had been soul sucked, Rose had been desperate for a place to live. So, she had headed off to Diagon Alley to withdraw some money from the goblins to rent a place in the magical world. This was the first time she had had contact with the goblins in a while, so she was understandably surprised when she received the news that the Tri-Wizard tournament had actually done some good for her.

The terms of the tournament were magically enforced by the contract, and it stated simply that only adults could participate. When Rose's name had been entered into the goblet and it came out successfully, the magic of the contract had emancipated her, meaning she had access to the Potter family wealth. Instead of building their wealth up like other families who had made their living establishing businesses and then selling them on to start new ones again and again over the generations, the Potters actually used House Elves to steal massive amounts of money to begin businesses and invested the money into them before they sold them for even more cash.

Crime was one of the family's greatest bread-winners even if some of the members went on to become outstanding healers, Curse-Breakers, spell crafters, enchanters and Aurors. The Potters, Rose was startled and even delighted to find out, make a lot of their living by smuggling on a massive scale, though that line had dried up when Charlus and Dorea Potter had both died, and then Lily and James.

The Potters didn't have a seat on the Wizengamot even if their influence warranted it. The family weren't interested in politics, they just wanted to work on their businesses, some of which were illegal. That suited her just fine, she wasn't interested in politics either. But what surprised her the most was how the family was apparently a bunch of thieves, but when she read in their history they had fallen on hard times and a few of their members had needed to steal in order to make ends meet, she understood.

It was in her blood.

Rose wondered if her own mother had become a thief thanks to her dad's influence, but unless she found a portrait of her parents she would never know. The Other was more of an encyclopaedia of Lily Potter's knowledge and experience, it was nothing more than that.

But when she had heard of the townhouse she had gone to investigate it for herself after she'd gotten the address from the goblins. The townhouse had some very powerful magical defences on it, and the moment she had entered the house she had felt, for the first time in her life, that she was finally home. Rose had never felt that way about Privet Drive. That dump was more like a prison than a home.

After dumping her re-sized trunk in the room she'd adopted as her own, Rose turned on the TV; the one that had been in the house before might as well have come from an antique shop for all she knew, and so she'd replaced it.

She checked the time and realised she would have to go back out soon to get some fresh food for the next week. Later on, she was tucking into some spaghetti bolognese; she had made a deal with the House-elves she had, she would cook her meals, they cleaned up the mess. She told them she liked keeping the skills she had had for the past decade to always be honed, and besides it wasn't as if she was losing out on all her chores.

After finishing with her dinner and making sure both Dobby and Winky were happily cleaning up, and making sure the spell she was using to mask her aura and blocking any attempts to track her down, Rose left the townhouse for a few hours.

She walked around the city, passing by dozens of banks and jewellery shops. Each time she did, she would click her fingers, and the moleskin bag she'd bought during her third year would be filled with some of the money and jewellery. Rose planned to get back into burglary, breaking into houses and cars like when she'd been younger, but until she had dealt with Voldemort and the rest of the Death Eaters, that was never going to happen.

After spending about two hours taking quite a bit of cash and jewellery out of various banks and shops and laughing at the knowledge the police and shopkeepers would be scratching their heads, saying that it had disappeared like magic, Rose's good mood faded a little bit when she saw a pregnant woman.

Rose had always wanted a family, a logical want after being stuck with a bunch of people who hated her and shoved her into a cupboard under the stairs, but ever since she'd discovered someone had dosed her up with a love potion her desires for family dwindled. Rose sighed and headed back for her new house, deep in thought.

It was possible for two people of the same sex to create a child. In the case of men, it was simply a matter of the two men brewing a potion and dropping some of their DNA into it before giving it to a willing woman to act as a surrogate mother. For women, the same potion was used only one or both of the woman could use it to become mothers. Rose wasn't sure she could do something like that to another woman - just date her for a little bit and then dump her while planning to nick some of her DNA, but she didn't really see another alternative. The idea of a woman living with her was a strange prospect, especially since that same woman would need to be open-minded enough to deal with House elves, potions, Dark Lords, goblins, merpeople, and magic in general.

Rose was frightened that if she met a woman she would come to love, they would dump her and hurt her much like the Dursleys had done, though verbally. She knew there was a good reason for the Magical world hiding from the muggle world, it wasn't the mundane notion of the muggles wanting magical solutions for their problems.

It was down to fear. Every time wizards and witches encountered muggles, there was violence because the muggles couldn't help themselves, they were afraid of magic. As she got closer to the townhouse, Rose suddenly shrugged her shoulders. This problem didn't need her going through a lot of thought right now, she had a while to go before she became truly worried about wanting children. She was close to her prime, she was just about to end the lives of the monsters who had ensured she and other people like her grew up alone and understanding pain a little better than most.

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Two days after the holiday had begun, Diagon Alley was practically deserted now Lord Voldemort had truly returned. The Dark Lord hadn't attacked anyone yet, but everyone who'd lived through the last war could remember the viciousness of the attacks. Walking through Diagon Alley at that point made Rose aware that everyone who was bravely walking and shopping in the few shops whose owners were hoping the war didn't affect them while so many others had closed their businesses down about how bad things must have been back then.

Comfortable under the glamour spell she'd cast over herself, Rose walked through the alley, feeling pity for these people while all the time being a little disgusted by their lack of spine. Each one of them could fight of the Death Eaters, and they could send them to an early grave. Instead they were letting the fuckers walk all over them.

Fortunately the apothecary was still open - potions were an important commodity no matter what, and you needed fresh ingredients. Rose marched into the shop and took out a scrap of parchment with the list of ingredients she needed. The potion itself was straight forward to make. She'd decided she was going to make the Ancient Egyptian version of the potion, though truthfully it didn't matter if she used either version to deal with the Horcrux.

While she was out she also bought herself a new cauldron, copper this time to help balance the potion for the ritual. She wanted everything to be done right. She could not risk messing this up if she used a crappy cauldron.

Rose was just leaving the alley when suddenly a series of popping sounds caught her attention, and made her swing around even as the few shoppers screamed and rushed around in all directions as they tried to escape.

Oh, typical Death Eaters, she thought idly as she caught sight of the group. The group were dressed from head to toe in their black robes and silver masks, wands already outstretched. But their leader was someone Rose had seen and heard of in newspaper articles and pictures. Bellatrix LeStrange, with her wild hair like it hadn't been combed recently since her escape from prison, her wide eyes and insane smile really made it believable and obvious the woman was a deranged Death Eater.

The moment Bellatrix saw her, the female Death Eater leered at her. "Why, if it isn't little Pervy Potter!" she pretended to coo like a mother to her child; Rose wondered if the woman even knew how stupid she sounded. "All alone without your little friends. Ready to see the Dark Lord yet, little Potter?"

"Oh, for goodness sake!" Rose rolled her eyes, clicking her fingers.

The Death Eaters screamed in shock and sudden surprise as their wands were snatched from their hands and snapped before their eyes. But before they could do anything about it, their bodies suddenly glowed green, and the tell-tale rushing sound of the killing curse was head but there was no sign of the curse being fired.

Bellatrix LeStrange looked on in shock, taken aback by how quickly and easily her fellow Death Eaters had been killed, and she turned to Rose. "What did you do?"

"I altered their magic to kill themselves," Rose replied before the teenage witch waved her hand in Bellatrix's direction. The female Death Eater didn't have time to scream as her neck was suddenly snapped.

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On the night of the ritual, Rose paused as she made the final touches on the preparations. Dumbledore's promise Fudge would be kicked out of office had definitely come true when Fudge, in an act of stupidity, had chosen to condemn her actions in Diagon Alley on the day she'd gone to collect the ingredients for the ritual. Dumbledore had likewise criticised her, but unlike Fudge he only said it in passing. The former Minister on the other hand had condemned her for the murder of upstanding pureblood citizens.

Too bad the little idiot didn't take into account he'd lumped the likes of Bellatrix LeStrange into the same category as those so-called upstanding citizens. From what she'd found out Madam Longbottom had personally and publicly torn Fudge a new one, reminding him of what LeStranges had done to her family.

Rose didn't really care about Fudge's problems since he was no longer the Minister for Magic. A man called Rufus Scrimgeour was. Rose had never heard of him, but she only hoped he had more common sense than Fudge had been blessed with. Either way, she didn't care. As long as he didn't bother her, she would not bother him. Or should that be the other way around?

"Dobby!" She called.

The House Elf popped into her view. "Yes, Rose Potter ma'am."

Rose smiled down at the House elf kindly. "Do you remember the instructions I gave you?" she asked.

"Yes, if yous gets too tired after performing the rituals, we're's taking yous back to the house," Dobby repeated his instructions.

"Correct," Rose replied as she looked at the bubbling cauldron waiting for her. She sighed, and she tried her best to control the butterflies in her stomach. It was a natural reaction, one that got past her occlumency barriers. It was hard for her to believe she would soon be free.

Regaining her control with supreme effort, Rose turned back to the house elf. "Dobby, I want to thank you and Winky for being there for me when I needed you. Bonding you both to me was the best decision I ever made, well that and a few others things," she added with a chuckle, "Remember, you and Winky are to patrol the area in case the Ministry or the Order of the Phoenix interfere. I don't know how much magic this ritual will leak out, but it might be enough for their sensor net to pick up."

"Yes, Miss Rose," Dobby promised and popped away, but the House elf was still nearby. She knew he was.

Rose sighed and headed over to the cauldron to begin the process.

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Rufus Scrimgeour, the new Minister for Magic, was busy in his office as he looked at the angry letters that had come from the parents of the students of Hogwarts who'd had the displeasure of having Dolores Umbridge as their Defence teacher last term, and he sighed tiredly. What in the name of Merlin was wrong with Fudge when he'd sent that woman to Hogwarts?

A Blood feather was illegal to use on minors, surely Fudge knew that, but he had the feeling that ever since the man had become Minister he had slowly developed an inflated opinion of himself, and believed he was above little things like the law.

Scrimgeour had no intention of hiding any of this, though he knew that if he allowed it to reach the prophet it could cause problems for the Ministry, and they had more than enough problems on their minds with the Dark Lord back. Just thinking about the devastating fight between Dumbledore the You-Know-Who was enough to scare him, but what he remembered as well was how Fudge had reacted when the prophecy linking You-Know-Who and Rose Potter together was revealed.

Both Rufus and Fudge wanted to speak to Rose Potter, but for totally different reasons. Rufus wanted to use the girl to bolster his efforts to fight You-Know-Who, he wanted to speak to her personally even if the story of her homosexuality put him on edge. Not for the first time, his attention turned to the copy of the Daily Prophet which showed Potter herself killing that bunch of Death Eaters, and Bellatrix LeStrange.

As someone who'd fought against Dark Wizards for most of his adult career, Rufus had encountered the insane witch more than once, and each time he had been lucky to escape in one piece, though more than a few others hadn't been lucky. Fudge and Dumbledore had both said, for different reasons, Rose Potter was to be punished for the murders, but Rufus had publicly lauded her actions, saying that LeStrange had deserved every thing that happened to her. The public agreed with him, and when Dumbledore had claimed that she could have been redeemed there had been a backlash towards the old wizard. What was wrong with him, surely he could see the woman was past the point of no return?

Percy Weasley stuck his head in through the door. "Excuse me, Minister," the boy said, and in Rufus' eyes, Weasley was a boy, a sycophant.

"What is it?" Rufus asked tiredly.

"There is a magical disturbance that the sensor net's picked up," Weasley said, "Madam Bones is already in the monitoring room."

Rufus sighed and wondered what would make Amelia summon him to something trivial, but as his eyes once more swept across the desk to the numerous angry letters, he decided he could use a break. After arriving at the Sensor control and monitoring room with Weasley in tow, though what would make the stupid boy follow him was beyond his comprehension since Rufus had more than enough sense to do things for himself, he nodded in greeting at Amelia.

"What's going on?" he asked the head of the DMLE after exchanging a mutual nod of greeting. Rufus had thought Amelia would become Minister since she was better qualified than Fudge, but instead she'd told him to run since she would want to stay on the frontlines. She had privately told him she'd prefer not to be anywhere near Fudge's former office in case the room turned her into an idiot.

Rufus hoped the same thing didn't happen to him.

"We're picking up a magical ritual in progress," Amelia reported, "and we've checked the magical signature against our records. It's Rose Potter."

Rufus looked at her sharply. "Are you sure?" he asked, seeing out of his peripheral vision Percy looking disapproving, but he didn't care about his thoughts on the girl.

"Positive. We have her magical signature on record after her past offences. It's her," Amelia replied.

Rufus's mind was spinning. "Do we know which ritual she's performing?"

"No. It's not in our records," Amelia said before she added, "I was about to go with a team to investigate."

Rufus paused for a moment, thinking. He had been wanting to meet the girl for some time, and as long as he could keep his own general unease about her sexual preferences to himself, there shouldn't be any reason for him not to see her now. Besides, he wanted to know what she'd been doing in the Alley when she had killed Bellatrix and the other Death Eaters.

"We'll go together. I need to meet with her Amelia, to try and build a bridge between her and the Ministry. Fudge made dozens of mistakes with her, and I won't make the same mistake."

Amelia looked like she didn't agree with that, but she nodded when she realised it wasn't going to do any good to argue.

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Rufus' good mood was soured when his entourage encountered Albus Dumbledore and some of his own entourage - for a man who claimed his vigilante group were secret, it was hardly a secret whenever a member of the Order of the Phoenix arrived. Rufus shared a brief look with Amelia, wondering if the same thought that entered his mind had occurred to her.

Amelia's grim face said it all, but Rufus turned back to face Dumbledore while his eyes swept the group that escorted the old wizard. Minerva McGonagall was there, along with the known werewolf Remus Lupin, and strangely a massive black dog that Rufus thought resembled a grim, but since he had never taken that stupid subject at school, he just chalked it down to coincidence. There were a few others there, including a young man with hair as red as Percy's, and was looking at the bespectacled man with contempt. Strangely enough there were two teenagers present, one of whom was also glaring at Percy with contempt, but it wasn't as controlled as the other man who was probably his older brother. The other teenager was a girl with bushy hair.

"Dumbledore," Rufus greeted curtly as he headed towards the ritual site. There was a bright glow of magical energy present, indicating that whatever Potter was doing it was using a lot of magic. "What are you doing here?"

"Why, we are here to make sure young Rose Potter isn't doing anything foolish," Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling, "after all magical rituals are dangerous for a reason."

Rufus heard Amelia sigh, and he too wondered just what Potter was doing. "We are not going to waste time talking Dumbledore," Rufus said, and he strode ahead, ignoring the old wizard's protests.

When the Ministry entourage stepped into the ritualistic circle, they stopped in shock. Rose Potter was on her knees holding a silver bracelet in her hands. The expression on the girl's face was one of total exhaustion. "Stay out of the circle," Potter ordered. "There's too much magic in the air. I don't know what it would do at this point to witches and wizards. It's best to let the magic ebb away.

"What are you doing?" Rufus asked.

Potter sighed. "Dealing with Voldemort, once and for all." She sighed and ran a hand through her messy hair while she got some rest. Rufus and Amelia both noticed the hand was shaking. The girl slumped down with a sigh and waited for the magic in the air to return to normal, while all the time keeping watch on the crowd nearby. "Dobby, Winky," she called when she sensed the magic was ebbing to a manageable level, and two House elves popped into view. Rufus watched as Potter leaned forwards weakly and whispered to them both for a few minutes before they disappeared.

They both came back a few minutes later, with chairs and refreshments. Rufus was a little surprised Potter seemed to be going the extra mile to ensure their comfort. If he didn't know any better, this could be a tea party. But before he could speak, the bushy-haired girl spoke and Rufus winced at how grating the voice was. "House elves! I thought you'd know better than to enslave House elves, Rose!"

Potter sneered at the girl. "Your opinion on house elves is different from mine, Granger," she snapped harshly. "Besides, I bonded with them. It doesn't matter now. Why are you here?"

Dumbledore spoke before Rufus could even assemble his thoughts. "We've come to find out what you were doing," the old wizard chided, "Rituals are forbidden for good reason-."

"Unless you know what you're doing, and I did," Rose interrupted before she sighed. "Have any of you heard of Horcruxes?"

The reaction from everyone was mixed. The dog barked harshly, Amelia and Rufus stiffened with shock the girl knew about those vile things, the bushy haired girl and the younger redhead both asked what they were, and the older redhead gaped. "How could you know about those jokes?"

"Jokes?" Amelia pounced on the word, but Rose got there before Bill Weasley could even speak. "Horcruxes are seen as jokes by Curse-Breakers because while they, technically, should make you immortal, they don't. Sometimes the Horcrux will make you live longer than a few years, but others will slice your lifespan in half."

Rufus looked at her sharply. "How do you know this?"

Potter licked her lips. "Give me a magical oath you won't do anything to me if I tell you," she said, "if you don't then you won't hear what Voldemort did to make himself immortal."

Rufus and Amelia gave the oath first after a brief look, and following their example the other members of the Ministry entourage followed suit. But the Order of the Phoenix were reluctant until an impatient Rufus Scrimgeour told them to do it so they could hear what Potter had done to the Dark Lord.

Once everyone had given their oaths, Rose leaned back in her chair. Rufus studied her, the girl looked like she was on the point of collapse.

But Potter pushed through her obvious exhaustion. "Lord Voldemort, known as Tom Riddle, was obsessed with living forever. During the 40s when he attended Hogwarts, the muggles were going through a war that saw half of London in ruins. Riddle managed to escape the abusive and intolerant muggles he was living with," she added, sending a meaningful look at Scrimgeour in the hopes he was taking what she was saying on board before she went on, "and he fled to Diagon Alley. While he was there, he found some books, one of them detailed the Horcruxes. Voldemort had always wanted to live forever, and he saw splitting his soul as the best way to do it."

"But Voldemort found another book that said Curse-Breakers could drain the Horcruxes. Once he saw that book, Voldemort tracked a Curse-Breaker down and found out that while they worked partially, Horcruxes were useless a means to become immortal. Before that Voldemort had come to the decision to make more than one, but after meeting the Curse-Breaker and finding out they didn't work, and from the Curse-Breaker he learnt of a ritual that helped in the draining process of the Horceuxes. Voldemort brooded over the matter for a while before he came up with another plan. Along the way, he discovered the druids had a similar ritual."

Rose shifted in her seat for a second while she struggled to get comfortable. "He decided to make a Horcrux anyway, but before he did that he spoke to Professor Slughorn about the Horcruxes. But Slughorn was an important part of the plan. Riddle knew someone like Dumbledore would learn about the Horcruxes eventually, so Riddle decided to leave clues, and he gave Slughorn some drugged crystallised pineapple to compel the teacher to erase part of his memory. During that same year, Riddle unleashed the monster of Salazar Slytherin, a basilisk, all the time preparing the ritual to create the Horcrux. When Myrtle Warren, aka Moaning Myrtle was murdered by the basilisk, Voldemort created his first Horcrux."

"It took him a while to recover, and the experience clinched it in Voldemort's mind the Horcruxes were a bad idea. The real plan for his immortality was more simple and less crude. But over the years, Voldemort continued to leave clues about what he'd supposedly done; he implanted false memories, booby trapped locations you would probably claim was the resting place of a Horcrux, headmaster," she said, glancing over at the frozen Dumbledore, "but the items under those booby traps are harmless. There is no soul piece in any of them. But there was a soul piece in my scar."

"What?!" Amelia and Scrimgeour shouted at the same time as Bill Weasley, Dumbledore on the other hand looked at her sharply, clearly wondering how she'd found out about that, but Rose held up a hand. "Don't worry," she whispered, "it's out of my head now, though it could hardly be called a soul piece, it was more of a fragment. Voldemort had no plans to create anymore Horcruxes. The Horcrux he'd originally made has been destroyed since it was given to Lucius Malfoy, who'd handed it to Ginny Weasley to massage his own ego after the girls' father raided his mansion, but the thing in my scar was a leftover remnant from his disappearance the night where he murdered my parents."

"When you see a piece of broken glass with a hole inside it, that gave me the image of the Horcrux. But you can still break off a piece of glass from the same hole. In the same way that's what happened with Voldemort's soul, a piece of it was destroyed in the night my parents my died. I don't know what they did, so don't ask, but whatever they did it was enough to break off a piece of Voldemort's soul and it embedded itself in my head. And over the years, whenever I was near the bastard, the scar would ache. Later on, I'd have visions of what he was doing."

"That's more or less what Horcruxes can do," Bill Weasley commented.

Rose nodded. "Believe it, I know it. Anyway, I discovered a way to reach into his mind and I found out what he'd done and how I could remove it. Voldemort remembers the rituals he leaned from the Curse-Breaker and a druid unlucky enough to cross his path. That's why he went after the druids. He knew if they found out what he'd done, they would know how to deal with him. I stole the ritual from his mind, and I used it tonight."

Dumbledore shook his head. "I don't like the idea of you entering Voldemort's mind, Rose my dear girl," he said.

"It's academic now, isn't it?" Rose snapped back at him. "Besides, if we'd followed your gospel, Voldemort would never died because you chose to fall into his trap. You believed he'd made multiple Horcruxes all the time, didn't you? But that stopped you from seeing the real reason for Voldemort's survival since that night in '81 was under your nose."

Rufus stiffened. "What do you mean?"

Rose smiled and then said three words. "The Dark Mark."

Amelia gasped. "Are you saying," she whispered, "that the reason he's come back is because of the Death Eaters?"

Rose nodded. "Yes," she replied. "Voldemort found a story about a magical exploration ship, in that story one of the crew was sick and dying. The captain came up with a way of binding his magic to the magic of the ship through a runic tattoo. The method worked and the wizard survived, but over the years other Dark Lords have taken the same method, and used it to bind their followers to them so then the Dark Lord would steal some of their magic. Voldemort's never been original or imaginative - he has been leaching off the magic of his followers for years to become stronger, and to live forever. All he needed to do for his plan to work was to mark more than a few people at a time, and in return he would leach off their powers and grow stronger. If any of those followers betrayed him or failed him, he could simply drain them of their magic until they died."

More than a few people were glaring at Dumbledore now.

"So," the old wizard said, "if we kept the Death Eaters alive…"

"Then Voldemort would have come back, yes," Rose finished for him before adding with a little bit of bite. "That also means Severus Snape had to die, though truthfully I don't see why that should bother you. You don't seem to care about pushing people around like they're pawns on a chessboard, sacrificing them for your plans. Oh, by the way, Snape was a double agent. He was working for you, yes, but he was also working for Voldemort. I'll send you the memories of what the greasy bastard did, but I'll see you in a few days. Dobby, Winky, it's time to go home."

With a pop from the House elves, Rose Potter disappeared from the circle.

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Albus Dumbledore was sitting in his office looking at the collection of memories sitting on his desk along with a letter from Rose Potter which the girl had handed out to him earlier on. Rose had arrived at the school a couple of days, looking fully refreshed and dressed in smart clothes after her work, after carrying out the ritual with Amelia and Rufus in tow, and they'd headed for the ward stone at the school, and together they'd watched as the bracelet containing Voldemort's soul and the magic of the Death Eaters into the school.

Dumbledore hadn't liked that any more than he'd liked the letter handed over to him with Rose's withdrawal from the school, but there was nothing he could do since the girl was emancipated thanks to the Tournament's bylaws. When he'd tried to stall the girl, though he had known from the moment the words were out of his mouth, he was wasting his time trying to persuade her to stay, he'd asked the girl about her education. Rose had simply said she would homeschool herself - she was alone now, just like she had been before, because she had made the mistake of thinking Hermione Granger was open-minded enough to accept the fact she was a lesbian. But she had learnt her lessons and she had become stronger for them. She didn't need anyone ever again. But the memory of Rose draining the Horcrux and the Death Eaters was something he was still coming to terms with. He had always hoped to redeem the Death Eaters and get them to see the light, but finding out they would only bring Voldemort back again and again had taken his redemption argument out of the equation.

Before she'd left, Rose had handed him a box containing some memories which she claimed were from the Death Eaters, though how she'd gotten them Dumbledore didn't even want to speculate. The girl had smiled and said that if he wanted to see how repentant they were then he should look at them.

Finally, Dumbledore tipped the memories into the pensieve, and taking a deep breath entered it.

When he came back out two hours later he vomited at the things they had done to muggles, especially Severus.

He would have to change his ways.

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In her townhouse, Rose was sitting in front of the television and watching the news, books and papers spread out over the couch with her summer's homework for her self study. She'd decided to become a Curse-Breaker, and she'd already prepared to give the goblins her memories of the Horcruxes and the ritual to them to help sweeten the decision to give her a job.

Homeschooling herself was one of her better ideas. As long as she studied hard, she couldn't see any reason why she couldn't succeed as a Curse-breaker.

"Thank you, mum," Rose whispered thinking about the Other in her mind for giving her the right mindset.

The End.

Please tell me what you think.


	4. The Killer

A slightly darker instalment with the same ideas of the Horcruxes and the Death Eaters.

The Killer.

Juniper Potter checked the time on her watch even as a silent Winky gave her her breakfast. The loyal little House-elf was being respectful, and she knew that if Juniper wanted reassurance then she'd be in a little better mood. She had another hour to go before she had to go for her appointment with the Mind Healer she had hired after hearing how good she was concerning rape victims. Bonding herself to Winky after learning that Dobby had bonded himself to her after that mess with the Chamber of Secrets had been the best thing to ever happen to her following Voldemort's return and the betrayal of Ron and Hermione when her name came out of that fucking Goblet of Fire.

It was an even better idea to have two incredibly dedicated House elves following what happened shortly after Voldemort's return. Juniper doubted very much if she could have survived without them, literally.

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 _They had just disarmed her, and her eyes followed her wand as it sailed away from her grasp. She made the stupid mistake of following the thin strip of wood which was her wand flying away before disappearing because it gave one of the Death Eaters the opportunity to overpower her with another spell that knocked the air out of her stomach. Juniper was left wheezing on the ground, struggling to get back to her feet quickly, but unfortunately she couldn't stop one of the Death Eaters - she didn't know if he was the one who'd cursed her in the stomach, but it didn't matter - was ripping her trousers off. Instantly she tried to struggle, but the Death Eater slapped her hard in the face._

" _Hold 'er down!" The Death Eater over her shouted. "I 'aven't had some tasty girls for a while."_

 _Juniper flinched, her blood turning swiftly to ice as the Death Eater's intentions became clear, but before she could scream, another Death Eater slammed a hand over her mouth to stifle her cries._

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Juniper closed her eyes as she remembered the rape….

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 _Juniper screamed in agony as the massive penis went in and out of her already sore vagina, tears were falling from her tightly shut eyes. She had lost count of the number of times the rapes had been going on for, but she had already had her shirt torn off her, and her breasts fondled roughly countless times. She had heard that sex was painful at first, but it was enjoyable. But there was no way on Earth this was enjoyable. Her body was sore, her vagina was bruised, and she'd been slapped across the face more than once by a Death Eater who seemed to be getting off on hearing her screams of pain._

 _But the worst was when Crabbe and Goyle Senior both raped her. They hadn't taken it in turns. They did it at the same time. They were like their sons, both massive and unimaginably dim, and for some reason, they hung out with each other like their sons. They were the ones to introduce her to anal fucking, and it hurt. Two massive penises shoved into her vagina and butt, both of them completely seemingly unaware of their strength, ripping through her until Juniper was sure they were going to tear her apart._

 _And all that time, Voldemort was laughing his head off at the sight of her in pain. Juniper had seen him idly sitting on one of the gravestones, watching as his followers passed her around from one to the next, all the time preparing for when he could kill her._

 _She had thought, wrongly, that when he'd released her from those bindings on the gravestone, they would simply duel and fight it out. No such luck. Juniper knew she was no match for Voldemort; the wizard may have been a psychopath, but he had decades of experience and magical knowledge over her despite the huge amount of study she'd done in order to survive this miserable year._

 _Instead, Voldemort had made an announcement to his followers. They could have fun with her since that was all a half-blood bitch like her was good for, and they had jumped at the chance to rape her. To make it more sporting, Voldemort had made sure she had her wand out to defend herself, "like her father" and then they'd disarmed her. What was the point of all that training she'd done when it couldn't help her here and now?_

 _She screamed through her gag - the Death Eaters had shoved it into her mouth to shut her up, but also to cause more discomfort - as Crabbe and Goyle shoved themselves into her again, and she mentally screamed for someone to help her._

" _Yous shall not harm Juni Potter!" Juniper almost wept with relief when she heard the familiar sound of Dobby's voice, and she turned to see the House-elf blast the Death Eaters away from her with a snap of his fingers. Another snap and she had the gag ripped out of her mouth. "G-get me away from here, Dobby," she begged the little elf while the Death Eaters scrambled to their feet, "t-take me a hospital, I don't think I can stand Hogwarts. But send Cedric's body back to the school."_

 _The little elf's eyes were wide with shock and horror at the state of her, but he snapped his fingers and vanished, the unholy sound of Voldemort's screech of rage following them._

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If it hadn't been for Dobby then it could have been infinitely worse, though Juniper didn't know how. She'd arrived in the middle of St. Mungo's hospital, half-naked, blood pouring out of her holes, and in a terrible state. The healers (which was what they were called, not doctors like in the muggle world), had taken her quickly into a ward and they'd sent word to the head of the DMLE and to Hogwarts about where she was, and what had happened to her.

Juniper had met Amelia Bones, liking the woman at once for her attitude to work and she had told the older witch about what happened to her, and she had given a magical vow that Voldemort had returned. She had given a magical vow shortly after the First Task. She had endured the hell of seeing her 'best friends' walk away from her, having to watch as everyone wore those stupid badges, and had nearly been roasted to death by a dragon.

A dragon, at a school!

What was wrong with the teachers?

Things like the Tri-Wizard should be banned.

Forever.

They were death traps where anyone could, and had, been killed by the dangerous magical creature brought into the school arena. If they wanted a contest, couldn't they have something a bit safer, or did the magical world think it was more entertaining and sporting for their students to nearly getting killed going into situations where they'd be killed?

The moment she had given the vow about Voldemort's return, Amelia Bones had looked like someone had walked over her grave, but Juniper couldn't blame her for feeling that way. Lord Voldemort was a monster, and if she was right then Madam Bones had fought against the bastard before. Juniper had given her the list of Death Eaters who'd raped her. The moment she had seen the list, Madam Bones had looked torn between wanting to wipe them out and kiss her on the cheeks for giving her the chance to wipe them out.

And then she had met Dumbledore, Sirius and the Weasley - why they were included, Juniper didn't know. She had broken off her friendship with the majority of that family after they'd turned on her, calling her names - and Hermione. Why was Sirius allowing them near her after what they'd done?

Dumbledore had wanted to talk to her about what had happened at the graveyard, but she wasn't going to tell him. She had had to live through the experience once already, she didn't want to recite it after doing it once before. Dumbledore had not been happy with that, but she had been less happy with him. She could still remember what she'd said to him….

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 _Juniper glared at the old wizard before her. "Why the hell should I tell you what happened? You probably know already; your precious pet Death Eater Snape has probably come back to you with a memory of how his buddies raped me, tore my insides to shreds! My bet is the greasy son of a bitch is only sorry he couldn't take part!"_

" _That's Professor Snape, Juniper," Dumbledore had retorted. "And Severus would never have raped you."_

 _Unbelievable. "That's it, that's all you're going to say?" Juniper whispered dangerously. "You care more about how I address him than the fact he's probably wishing he could've raped me? Of course, he'd have raped me! He's a Death Eater!"_

" _Severus would never rape you, Juniper," Dumbledore repeated calmly, "he couldn't harm the only thing left of your mother."_

 _Juniper blinked in surprise. This was new. "What the fuck has my mother got to do with this?"_

" _Language, Juniper," Mrs Weasley chided her, her voice not exactly a shout but not far off. Juniper just blanked her. "Go on, tell me," she said, "why is my mother important? He wasn't in love with her, was he?"_

 _Dumbledore nodded._

" _Yuck!" Juniper said. "That's disgusting! But we're getting off topic. I don't want to talk about Snape and my mum. If you think for one second I am going to tell you what happened to me, fine. I'll enlighten you. Lord Voldemort," she ignored the gasps and cries in the room at the mention of the dreaded name, "is back. He used a potion - blood of the enemy, forcibly taken, flesh of the servant from Wormtail," she ignored the growling coming from Sirius' dog form, "bone of the father, and he mixed it into a potion, and he came back to life. The moment he came back he told every one of the Death Eaters, punishing a few along the way for not coming after him and saving him from a life as a wraith, he released me. He made me defend myself before telling the Death Eaters I was their entertainment. I was disarmed, and they raped me. They RAPED ME, DUMBLEDORE!" She screamed, tears streaming down her face despite her iron self-control, "Are you happy now? You've spent the whole year since my name came out of that goblet setting me up as bait! What's wrong, supposed Great Wizard of the Age, can't you come up with a better plan? Do you get your jollies forcing kids to go up against dragons, nearly getting drowned in lakes, forced to fend off Grindylows and merpeople to save someone who's no longer a friend!"_

 _That was enough for Molly Weasley, but the teenage witch didn't know if it was because Dumbledore was being insulted or that her son was no longer seen as a friend. Juniper didn't care._

" _Juniper, that is enough!" she cried. "Apologise right now!"_

" _Professor Dumbledore didn't know what was happening to you," Hermione added, following in Molly Weasley's footsteps in defending Dumbledore right up to the hilt and completely ignoring the fact he had let things be taken as far as they had._

 _Hearing how these two were more interested in her attacking Dumbledore made Juniper angry."SHUT UP!" She screamed at them. "Keep outta this! This hasn't got anything to do with you, I don't want you here full stop!" She turned to face the still calm Dumbledore. "Is that why you brought the Tri-wizard back, Headmaster?" she whispered. "Did you want it to kill someone?"_

 _Dumbledore was silent._

 _But the teenager was not finished, now no longer giving a damn what he was feeling or how he felt being shouted at. "What did I do to the magical world to deserve this shit? I doubt my mum and dad died so then you play games with my life like you have the fucking right, you self-righteous old shit. You are a user, Professor. You play games with people's lives, you talk about sacrifices but you don't care to make them yourself. That's not what life is about, life is what people make it out to be, not what you SAY it is. Something you don't understand, and quite possibly never will."_

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Juniper didn't really feel much regret towards what she'd said to Dumbledore, but that was nothing compared with what happened with Fudge. The pompous fool had arrived just as her argument with Dumbledore was reaching its ends. She had never really liked the Minister since her third year when he'd tried to keep her in Diagon Alley before her third year in an attempt to keep her safe; Juniper wasn't stupid, she knew Fudge was only doing it to make it seem like he was doing something. That was all the man cared about, he cared more for politics and keeping the people, his voters, happy and reassured.

And that meant sucking up to her, the Girl Who Lived. But truthfully she had the feeling if something happened to her, he would blame someone else and try to cover it up.

Too bad Fudge was incredibly susceptible to the same prejudices as the rest of the magical world. He hadn't believed her word, even though she had given her magical oath to Madam Bones. He had cited her being a parselmouth as a reason for her not being trustworthy while all the time completely ignoring the fact she'd given an oath.

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 _Juniper looked at the Minister with contempt. "I've just given you my magical oath that I'm telling the truth, but you're still in denial?"_

" _Now, see here, girl-."Fudge blustered, but he had no idea he'd made a big mistake._

 _All of the stress, all the pain she'd been through; the vicious rapes she'd endured from the Death Eaters, the resurrection of Voldemort, being hounded by the press, abandoned by her so-called friends, the stress of the tasks and fighting to stay alive, coupled with her time at the Dursleys, and Dumbledore's desire to play games with her life and wellbeing exploded in a blast of accidental magic._

" _DON'T CALL ME GIRL!" Juniper screamed. "How DARE you call me that! Did you even bother to read the reports of what happened? I was kidnapped and used in a ritual by Lord Voldemort-."_

 _Unfortunately, Fudge proved he could shout as loud as she could. "NEVER use that name!" Fudge's podgy face was bright red, verging dangerously close to purple while the metal fixtures in the room buckled under the stress of her magic, and the glass shattered, and the china cracked._

" _Besides how can we trust your word? A parselmouth? The damage here caused by your lack of control?" Fudge's face was creased with disgust and distaste, his body language as he moved back from her bed, as if trying to stay away from a victim of some virulent plague, spoke volumes about how he was taking the fact she could speak to snakes._

 _Juniper clenched her fists angrily. "I have given a magical vow, two in fact, that Voldemort, yeah, Voldemort, is back. You can deny it all you like, Fudge, but burying your head in the sand is not gonna work. He will come out of hiding, and when he does the bastard won't give a shit about your opinion!"_

 _The teenage witch became more aware of each word that Fudge was drawn into his denial mode that he was no longer listening to what she was saying. The moronic politician was muttering, "No, he can't be back, he just can't.'_

 _Juniper closed her eyes and sighed, wishing that she had not tried wasting her time with Fudge; the moron had never listened to a single word she'd said in the past, why would she expect him to believe anything she said to him now? She remembered how she had tried to tell the fool how she'd hated the Dursleys and the feeling was mutual just after she'd blown Marge up when she started on about her mother. Filthy muggle bitch._

 _But Fudge hadn't listened to her, but he'd begun a trend; he refused to listen to her when she and Hermione tried to convince him Sirius was innocent, but Fudge had denied it, saying Sirius had confounded them._

 _Then Fudge spoke again. "It must have been the work of Sirius Black," he said, making it sound like a suggestion to himself before he accepted the 'suggestion' in the same way a drowning man would accept a lifebelt to keep himself afloat. "Yes, that must be it," Fudge said to himself, seemingly happier now that a more 'believable' explanation to work with, "you must have been confounded by Sirius Black-."_

 _Juniper rolled her eyes and looked away, wondering why she was even bothering with Fudge. She swallowed the bile, tried to work out a way she could get away from this pathetic, pompous politician who seemed to think Sirius was the universal answer to every problem that came his way. In the past, this man had been polite and courteous, but if there was one thing she had learnt over the years it was that people often wore masks to confuse and lull people, she had used them herself in the past._

 _But the most amazing thing about Fudge was that for such a useless lump of a man who seemed so incredibly talentless, he did have a talent. When Juniper had first heard about him from Hagrid, the half-giant had told her Fudge was bungler. And he was. Her next year at Hogwarts had proven it. But now she could see that Fudge's attempts to convince himself Sirius Black was the guilty party and what she had seen under the invisibility cloak with Ron when Fudge had arrived to arrest Hagrid for the attacks were linked. Fudge did have a talent after all; he had the amazing talent of being so happily ignorant of how ignorant he was. It was as if his brain gathered data from all sources; the reliable, the marginal, and the fantastic. And then it would select what it liked and discard what was left and then moulded it into its own form of gospel truth. He honestly believed every single piece of garbage he came out with, and he didn't care if his decisions caused people to suffer._

 _He was seemingly oblivious to how painful some of his decisions could be. He didn't care about ordering the Dementors to be stationed at Hogwarts last year, and they'd nearly kissed some of the students, and some of the villagers in Hogsmeade had been unable to cast a Patronus to drive them away._

 _When Fudge had learnt of the attacks in her Second year, he must have looked into the old records and realised that Hagrid had been expelled, and believed instantly that the half-giant was guilty. He just was. He didn't need to investigate because since the previous evidence had been so 'concrete', so why bother to change it now? It just was. The end._

 _It was completely beyond his ability to comprehend that just because someone had been accused of something terrible then it might be they had been framed. But in the case of Sirius, it was a different matter. Juniper had learnt Fudge himself had been part of the party that had arrested Sirius when Pettigrew had framed him after her parents had been murdered. The combination of the loss of two war heroes and the orphaning of little Juniper Potter, the Girl Who Lived, and the capture of Sirius Black had given Fudge the political leverage he'd needed to become Minister. It didn't matter to him if Sirius was innocent or not, he had arrived on the street and witnessed the virtual destruction of it, and he'd convinced himself Sirius was guilty. But in that one corner, Juniper could pretty much understand his point of view; the evidence had been stacked up against Sirius, but Juniper would have liked to think to herself that if she had been on duty, and she came across something similar to what Fudge had seen that night, she wouldn't have thought 'right, he's obviously guilty, lets sling him into Azkaban and throw away the key.'_

 _Juniper had been accused of many things over the years, and she hated it whenever something happened to her to make 'holier than thou' people who believed they knew everything just point the finger and accuse her without bothering to look closely. Her attitudes had been bolstered by seeing first hand and experiencing first hand for herself how quickly the Wizarding world could accuse someone of doing something they hadn't done, and she liked to think she couldn't do something similar._

 _But what disgusted her the most about this, about Fudge, was just how the moron seemed to think Sirius would rape her. Juniper just sighed in irritation and she decided not to bother with Fudge anymore._

 _In the end, Fudge was about to leave, muttering to himself when he remembered something important. He turned back and took a heaving sack from the pocket in his robes. "Your winnings," he said curtly, and then he left without a glance back. She wanted to throw the bag back at him._

 _A healer who had been ignored during the argument between her, Dumbledore, and Fudge, announced the visiting hours were over. Juniper was relieved by her intervention because she wasn't sure how much more of this she could take without screaming._

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After that day, she met the Diggorys who were thankful she'd had Cedric's body brought back to them for burial. Juniper had asked them to bring a pensieve, if they had one, and they did. She had done some studying up about the magical devices, and how she should go about extracting memories.

The two Diggory parents knew Lord Voldemort was back.

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 _Mr and Mrs Diggory were looking at her with their eyes leaking with tears, their eyes were red-rimmed. They probably hadn't stopped crying since they'd become aware of their son's death, and Juniper could not blame them in the least. She had cried herself to death when she learnt her parents were dead, though the Dursleys had quickly put a stop to that._

 _Juniper looked down at her hands clasped in front of her on the bed duvet. Larger hands, but those of a woman, suddenly wrapped around her smaller hands, and she looked up into the kindly eyes of Mrs Diggory. She was surprised by the woman's actions - why would she try to comfort her?_

 _The woman's eyes were teary for the loss of her son, but there was a sympathy in her eyes for her that hadn't been present when Molly Weasley had blustered into the room, crushing her in a hug that Juniper didn't need and didn't truly want. In Juniper's mind, this was what a real mother should be like, and it made her wonder if her own mother would have done the same. Her feelings towards Mrs Weasley had soured over the past year, though truthfully she had always found the woman a bit one-dimensional, and more than a bit loud._

 _But she would never know who her mother took after - Mrs Weasley or this woman. She hoped it was the latter._

" _I'm so sorry you had to go through that, dear," the woman whispered softly; another contrast, Molly Weasley wouldn't know how to whisper even if her life depended on it. "I always thought the Death Eaters and their master were animals with no respect for life, but that's the first time I've seen proof of what they do."_

 _Juniper bit her lip and the woman gently pulled her into a hug. Juniper stiffened at the sudden contact, and she had to resist the urge to shout and scream to be released, but she didn't. Mrs Diggory wasn't causing her any harm, and besides after the stress of dealing with Fudge, Dumbledore, and Molly Weasley, she felt she could cope._

 _Mr Diggory was shaking his head, and she watched him nervously. "I can't believe it, he's back," the man whispered in horror, and she realised he was shocked the bastard was back rather than going into denial like Fudge had._

" _He is," Juniper said softly. "He was simply torn from his original body the night he attacked me and my family. He was never dead, well not truly dead. But apart from you, Dumbledore, some of the healers here, and Madam Bones, no-one really believes me."_

 _Mr and Mrs Diggory shuddered. "You know, you can take that memory to the Wizengamot," Mr Diggory said, but Juniper shook her head. "I don't see the point; Fudge wouldn't believe me even when I gave a magical vow, so what good would a memory do? And don't think for a second even if you did it at my behest they'll let you show it."_

 _Juniper had learnt about the Wizengamot during her visits to Sirius, the one thing apart from Dobby and Winky and the training sessions, to keep her sane during the tournament._

 _Mr Diggory pondered her argument and nodded. "You're probably right," he sighed in resignation, clearly tired and weary by the thought of Fudge's stupidity. "Have you told anyone else?"_

" _No. Madam Bones knows, but she told me that Fudge has caused her a lot of trouble over the years, cutting funding and everything else," Juniper said, her face dark with how serious this was. "I only hope the DMLE can get back on its feet to deal with this."_

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Dumbledore had informed her that she would be returning to the Dursleys and that she would be escorted to Privet Drive, so everything she had said to him before when he'd visited her along with the Weasleys, Sirius and Hermione was water rushing off a duck's back. Juniper hadn't really been surprised by the decision of the old man to ignore her arguments, that was what he'd been doing for the best part of the last few years. She had told the man about the Dursleys in the past, and he had ignored her then.

Juniper just couldn't work out what Dumbledore's long-term aims were when it came to the Dursleys. He seemed to have this fixation on her living with them when she wasn't at Hogwarts, and he went out of his way to control her movements. On the one hand, she could understand his motivations for keeping her safe, but Juniper had been scouring the newspapers for any sign of activities that she could put down to Voldemort's handiwork. But there wasn't any. In her first year, Professor Flitwick had commented that she had her mother's intellect, something that made her happy because ever since she arrived at the school, everyone had been comparing her to her father.

Her inherent intellect was serving her well now though it had served her well for the past 13 years. She had looked at the newspapers that had been delivered to the hospital for the patients to read so they could keep appraised with current affairs, and she had realised with the lack of anything happening that the Ministry or the public would notice that Voldemort simply was not ready to launch a full-scale war.

The Dark Lord had only just returned to power. It would take him a while to rebuild his forces, many of whom had either gone to ground or had been locked in Azkaban, or some of them had been killed during the war or over the years. Juniper had no idea how long it would take for Voldemort to rebuild, but if he was left to his own devices and he made sure to cover his tracks, he might not need long but the longer he had, then the easier it would be to shatter the magical world like a hammer breaking glass.

Dumbledore's announcement that she was to head back to the Dursleys could not have come at a more inconvenient time, because of the multiple rapes she'd suffered she had gone through considerable trauma, hardly what she would have wanted for her first time, and she needed to see a mind healer. When she brought the matter up with Dumbledore, the old wizard had promised her that she could see the Mind Healer, but she didn't believe him. Dumbledore never kept his word, and she doubted he would let her anywhere near a Mind Healer when she desperately needed one; he hadn't bothered making sure Ginny Weasley saw someone after a young Tom Riddle possessed her, deeming her 'fine,' something Molly Weasley had accepted without a thought.

But in Juniper's case…. Dumbledore just didn't seem to care what happened between her and the Dursleys, and he didn't seem to give a thought at all about her happiness, or lack of happiness. He had promised her he would make sure her summers were happy, instead they had become even worse. Sometimes she cursed Dobby and Mafalda bloody Hopkirk for taking away the only weapon she had against them. She still had her wand, but it was like threatening an armed gang of psychopaths with a splinter.

She would not see a single witch or wizard during the summer because of Dumbledore's desire to keep her locked up at Number 4. Juniper suffered from nightmares, and she knew with the return of Voldemort and what happened with the Death Eaters would only make them worse, and the walls at Number 4 were wafer thin; the moment she screamed her head off, Vernon would wrench open the door, and beat her up for making a noise.

And Dumbledore didn't give a shit.

Juniper hadn't bothered saying a word to Dumbledore; she had just given up on him listening to her and letting what she said to go through one ear only for it all to go out of the other. She was done wasting time on him.

She looked around the townhouse happily, pleased that she had found out about the Time Turner Hermione had been using during third year before the idiot girl had revealed it in the first place, and copied it. The Turner had given her the means to sneak about the school, and it had given her the opportunity to break into places she had never been able to before. But this year she had used it to escape St. Mungos, only a few weeks ago, and go to Gringotts when she had thought about leaving the school. Juniper had become heartily sick and tired of the way the Hogwarts students were ganging up on her whenever something happened, and she was tired of Dumbledore and how he seemed determined to restrict what she learnt and what she did.

To her delight, the goblins had told her she was emancipated thanks to the rules of the Tri-wizard tournament. Juniper remembered laughing out loud at the news; Barty Crouch Senior and Dumbledore had told her she had to compete during the tournament, but they'd neglected or simply forgotten about that little facet. The magic of the cup had made her an adult in the eyes of the magical law, so that meant she could do virtually anything she wanted, though she didn't think that Fudge or Dumbledore would care.

Juniper's sudden and unexpected adulthood had given her access to her parents' legacy. She had access to their diaries and the townhouse. She remembered receiving the diaries. Lily and James had known there was a possibility of them dying, so they had recorded their experiences in diaries.

But she also discovered a weapon

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 _The goblin sitting nearby was looking at her with an expression Juniper couldn't read. "Are you sure you want us to do this, extract the Horcrux in your scar and then keep it while you go off to another country to learn more about magic?" Even his voice made it hard for Juniper to know what he was saying, and she cursed the lack of knowledge she had concerning goblins to begin with._

 _Juniper had just learnt the horrible secret of Lord Voldemort. She had known Voldemort would go to any depth and any low to discover how to become immortal, but to actually tear his soul was disturbing and disgusting, but it fitted with what she knew about him as a person. But the goblins had told her the truth about Horcruxes. They didn't make a witch or wizard immortal despite the popular belief, but the goblins were disgusted by the notion of the Horcruxes; they caused priceless artefacts and treasures to be contaminated or lost because their destroyers who were aware of them and knew what to look for when they were hunting them down destroyed the container because they believed in the poor information found in numerous books._

 _They were seen as jokes that had been left behind in tombs all over the world, and their Curse-Breakers routinely encountered them. Juniper was shown a report that gave the last month statistics on how many of the things had been found. Over 3 dozen had been located in the past month. Just knowing so many people had torn their souls to shreds just to live a little longer made her sick._

 _From the goblins, Juniper learnt the Horcruxes were used to make someone immortal, but they didn't work. They involved splitting the soul, and the magic, through a ritual powered by murder. Unfortunately, they either sliced their lifespans in half, so they lived a little less longer than they'd expected or hoped, or they lived only for another few years._

 _That was it. But if you were hit with a killing curse, then the Horcrux wouldn't magically bring them back like a paddle ball or someone leaping off a bridge attached to nothing but a bungee cord. The soul would still die, but that didn't explain why Voldemort was still alive, but she'd worked it out. It was the Dark Marks branded into the arms of the Death Eaters. The Death Eaters had been allowed to live after the last war, some of them had bribed their way out of prison, though many of them hadn't been lucky._

 _There were a few ways to destroy a Horcrux; basilisk venom, the killing curse, but the goblins taught their Curse-Breakers a nifty little ritual that could remove the Horcruxes from whatever treasure item they had been locked in and placed inside a piece of silver jewellery where the magic of the creator would be shoved into it._

 _But there was a similar method of removing the Horcruxes from the container, and it could be placed inside something different, and one of those things was in Juniper's scar. At first, the young witch had been horrified by the news she had a chunk of Lord Voldemort's soul in her head, but she quickly accepted the news._

 _It made so much sense - the dreams, the visions, the nightmares, call them what you like, the knowledge Voldemort was nearby whenever she felt the scar prickle or burst with pain. The fact she could speak to snakes._

 _Juniper had a piece of Voldemort's soul in her head, and she wanted it out. After the goblins had told her what they'd found, she had asked for a few moments to think about what she should do. A part of her just wanted to get rid of the soul piece, to use it as a conduit to drain the others and get rid of Voldemort and the Death Eaters because they were keeping him alive, end the war before it happened._

 _But a larger part of her wanted to get revenge on the Death Eaters; they had raped her, used her like a toy, and they'd torn her dignity away from her. And it wasn't just her. They had hidden behind their facade of being benevolent benefactors, philanthropists who donated large sums of money to different places which needed it, like St. Mungos, but all the time they dressed in robes and masks and they delighted in sadistically torturing and forcing themselves on girls and women._

 _Juniper wasn't going to let them get away with it. From what the goblins said, many of the Death Eaters would probably die from the strain as their magic was torn out of their bodies during the ritual but she didn't really care, and besides as long as there were a lot of Death Eaters reduced to being squibs (the irony did not escape her, the Death Eaters liked to see themselves as the saviours of the pureblood traditions, and they looked down on those without magic or without the type of upbringing they had enjoyed, but now their doom and destiny of becoming squibs was looking more certain), she would be happy. Some people might consider her to be a coward for going after people who couldn't fight back, but she didn't care about that either._

 _All she cared about was justice in this case. And revenge._

 _Juniper wasn't afraid of that word, or what she was considering. She didn't care if others would consider what her plans were to be dark. She had had enough of the magical world and their opinions, it wasn't as though they had never accused her of being evil before. But this time she was doing it for real, only she was going after real monsters._

" _Yes," she said to the goblin, "when I was caught by the Death Eaters, they delighted in ripping my clothes away and then raping me. I want to repay the favour in a few years. I want them to feel their magic being torn away, everything that makes them witches and wizards being torn from their bodies and then being left powerless. But before that, I want to learn all I can about magic, and how to fight back. But I won't be fighting in the manner Dumbledore and his ilk considers acceptable. Their methods don't work; all they are doing is ensuring the Death Eaters can fight another day."_

 _Silence fell all over the room as the goblins processed what she was saying; they had all noticed the slow and burning rage in her as she had recounted what had happened to her and the certainty of what she planned to do to the Death Eaters. "The process to remove the soul fragment is going to be painful, but since the Horcrux in your scar is not as powerful as others of its type since the Dark Lord never performed the ritual to create it in the first place, and it was created due to the damage to his already damaged soul, it would be easier than if we were doing the same to a full Horcrux."_

 _Juniper nodded as the goblins healers got to work. A part of her wanted to know more about the soul fragments, but the other part just wanted to get this mess over and done with._

 _She had found some use for the bag of 10,000 galleons after all._

 _But before they could begin the procedure, she had something she wanted to ask._

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Juniper looked at her watch.

She would have to get to ready soon instead of brooding around her flat, ignoring the gathering pile of letters being sent by Hermione and Ron. She had already opened one from each, but she threw them away without bothering to read what the others said. They were basically trying to get back into her good books, though why they were bothering when they had ripped what little they had to shreds was beyond her. But even if she had been in a better mood then she wouldn't have taken them back.

Neither of their letters told her much - they basically said they couldn't say what was going on, though they wanted to know where she was hiding since they knew she wasn't with the Dursleys (Great guess Sherlock and Watson), and that she should trust Dumbledore and get over her petty disagreement with him. After that, she had decided to never write to them ever again, particularly when she learned of the tracking spells on them from the House Elves.

If that didn't spell the end of their so-called friendship, Juniper didn't know what didn't.

But things were worse with the other letters. Molly Weasley's letters weren't anything more than demands for her to return to the Dursleys where she was safe, Sirius was trying to find out where she was, but he was just as uninformative about what was going on.

Dumbledore was worse. In his letters, he scolded her massively for worrying the Dursleys, though she believed he was only inventing that to make her feel guilty about escaping from his clutches, and for worrying him when he just wanted to keep her safe. But if she did that then she would be stuck at Privet drive full time. But in the letters he sent, he sent grandfatherly messages designed to make her open up about the scar.

Juniper was tempted to tell him she knew about the Horcrux and see what happened, but she decided against it. There was no telling what the old wizard would do with that information, and since it was the only weapon she had against Voldemort for when she returned to the country, she could not waste it just because Albus Dumbledore did something incredibly stupid.

During the month after she'd left the magical hospital, Juniper prepared for the long flight to Australia. She felt it would be the best place to get started while moving her way across the world for the next few years, soaking up what she could and then coming back, and then applying it on the Death Eaters.

She wrote a letter to Sirius while she got her affairs into order, hiring a solicitor in Australia to buy her a flat. She travelled down there personally to survey various properties in Sydney. There was a magical school that connected the various towns and cities together via a railway that looked excellent from the prospectus, and best of all they offered muggle subjects. The Australians, while similar to the Americans own MACUSA who actively had no ties to the muggle world, believed that a general understanding of Muggle culture was better than not knowing, and besides some witches and wizards from non-magical families might like to explore the possibility of a life in both worlds. Consequently, the Australians had a much better management of their muggle relations than in other countries.

The estate agents and the solicitors had been surprised by her age, but the fact she was paying a handsome amount of cash for a place to live and to go to school in Australia shut them up. It had taken her a couple of weeks, but she quickly found the home she wanted to buy while keeping her townhouse in London. She had no intentions of abandoning that. In the meantime, with the goblins connections, she set up a new identity for herself in the Australian magical world so when it came down to tracking her down, the British wouldn't manage it. Also, she had withdrawn from Hogwarts. She had come to the realisation it wasn't the school for her.

When it came to leaving Britain, Juniper felt nothing. She had never really been attached to this country, and she felt confident she'd be better off somewhere else.

"I'll be back," she promised herself while she was perusing a bookshop at the airport - she was thankful she had Dobby and Winky to make sure all her things were in Australia waiting for her - and while she was reading, she came across an Agatha Christie novel, whose title drew her attention. She picked it up and read the synopsis on the back, and she became more and more intrigued and interested as she read each word. Quickly she flipped through the book to make sure all of the pages within it were intact, and she was relieved when they were, and she took out the appropriate amount of cash and handed it to the cashier.

The book was called AND THEN THERE WERE NONE.

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Sirius Black didn't know how much more he could take. When he had walked out of his parents' old house in London, he had thought it would have been the last time he stepped foot in this miserable house of horror, though it hadn't been as awful then as it was now. The house of his youth and the current incarnation of the place bore very little resemblance. In the past, Number 12 Grimmauld Place had been a grand place with richly decorated walls and furniture of dark but vibrant colours, and apart from the mounted heads of the House-elves that ran to the upper levels and the Dark knickknacks scattered throughout the place, the place had really gone downhill.

What in the name of Merlin had Kreacher been doing all these years? The House-elf had really let the place go, and as a result all the magic in the house had begun to warp for some reason Sirius could not work out, and his knowledge of dark magic was better than Dumbledore's, though Snape's was probably better, and there was no way Severus would be trusted. The house was a death trap, all the enchantments and the spells on the place had begun to alter themselves into something Sirius really did not like the look of.

Sirius closed his eyes when the muffled voice of Molly Weasley disturbed his alone time. It amazed him that even far away, the woman could be heard from a considerable distance. That woman was getting on his nerves with her cleaning obsession. While he didn't mind the company, Sirius found the Weasley family a bit too much at the best of times, though they had given him the company he had been craving for a very long time.

But he found Molly and some of her kids to be taxing. They said a lot of poorly chosen things, but what really annoyed him was they, and some of the Order, seemed determined to keep him here on Dumbledore's orders so then he didn't do anything stupid like getting himself captured and then kissed by Fudge's kiss on sight warrant.

He found their patronising stance annoying.

But what really annoyed him the most was how the Weasley's ignored him when he told them to get a proper Curse-Breaker, which their eldest was, to see about breaking down some of the spells around the house so then they didn't get hurt. They didn't listen to him. They were blundering about the house like they owned it, completely unaware of what could happen to them in case one of the spells on the house attacked them beyond its original purpose.

But he was also worried about Juniper. He had no idea what the girl was doing, and had already suffered so much because of the Death Eaters. Sirius had personally seen the state of numerous people tortured and raped by the Death Eaters who treated the entire event like a sport. He agreed with Dumbledore in that she should be safe, but he didn't think that locking her away in the muggle world was going to do any favours. Juniper should be seeing a mind healer, and if her stories about the Dursleys were true, then the muggles would only make things worse. Why couldn't Dumbledore see that?

He also couldn't understand why Dumbledore wouldn't think about trying to communicate through to Juniper through other means instead of through the post - the Death Eaters were probably not going to bother mugging every single postman in the country, were they?

Sirius sighed. Sometimes he wondered if Dumbledore was even wholly there.

Suddenly a letter appeared on the table. Sirius leapt back from the offending piece of paper with a yelp of surprise, and he took out his wand and scanned the letter. The scan turned out that there were no curses or charms on it, so it was safe to read, but how did it get through the Fidellius charm?

Shrugging, the wizard opened the letter and began to read. He saw quickly it was from Juniper, and he grew excited, but as he continued to read the letter made him sag physically.

He had to read the letter again so it's message sank into his mind.

" _ **Dear Sirius,**_

 _ **If you're reading this letter, then it has arrived two weeks after I've left; I deliberately made sure to leave out the date on the letter so then you couldn't tell when precisely I left. I'm sorry for the secrecy, but I can't risk anybody trying to track me down.**_

 _ **I needed to leave the country. Yeah, I've left Britain, but I will be back.**_

 _ **And now I bet you'll be fussing and moping, planning and plotting to find a way to track me down - typical. But give me a bit of time, and I'll tell you why I've left Britain, Hogwarts, and the magical world.**_

 _ **I've had enough, Sirius. I have had enough of the British magical world. When Fudge refused to listen to what I was saying, even going so far as accusing you of being behind it, and even denying it as truth when I made that magical vow, I knew then I was wasting my time. Fudge would deny everything I said, so showing the memory of what happened to me in that graveyard, and he might have had me arrested.**_

 _ **No. The only way Fudge would accept the truth is if Voldemort shows himself right in front of him. No-one ever said Fudge was bright. He has this talent of choosing what he wants to believe in and then spewing it all out.**_

 _ **I had a more positive reason for leaving.**_

 _ **I want to learn about magic away from Hogwarts. I want to raise a few points about the school, and you're not going to like them - the first, the Defence Teachers. We're getting a different one each year, and for the last couple of years I've learnt more about spells, but the teachers don't last longer than a year.**_

 _ **Second, I don't think I'm learning enough. I don't want you to tell anyone this, and I want you to destroy this letter so then Dumbledore and the others don't hold of it. I managed to copy the Time Turner Hermione had been using, I learnt about it long before she revealed she was using it. I took a good long look at her timetable, Sirius. It was impossible - she had subjects that overlapped each other, and it was impossible for her to be in two places at once. It took me a while, but I learnt what it was. I stunned her and I copied it. I had access to time travel and I used it to sneak into various lessons in the upper years - I was already taking Ancient Runes and Arithmancy, along with Divination and Care of Magical Creatures, but I wanted to study the classes offered to the upper years once I learnt what the turner could do.**_

 _ **But I don't think I'm learning a lot about magic. I've always wanted to study lots of magic since I discovered it. But the lessons always seem to be stunted, and I can't tell what.**_

 _ **Three, Dumbledore - you were there, Sirius. The old man just wouldn't listen to me. He also refused to listen to me when I told him about the Dursleys (that's my last point, but give me a chance to get there), but he is worse in Hogwarts. The man used me as bait, Sirius. He used me as a lure for whoever put me through that mess in the tournament without a thought in the world.**_

 _ **The result; I was raped. I was kidnapped. I was used as a blood donor to Voldemort's ritual, and when I was in St. Mungo's he wanted to take me back to Hogwarts, to Madam Pomfrey. What? I was being treated by healers, and then he tried to throw his weight around until he was told to stop.**_

 _ **Some concern there.**_

 _ **I'm tired of the man using me like a puppet, that's how he sees me, and I am just tired of it.**_

 _ **My last point isn't about Hogwarts. It's about the Dursleys.**_

 _ **Sirius, I was abused by them mentally and verbally. Vernon and Petunia also slapped me around a bit, but they knew better than to smack me too hard; they knew they were under scrutiny, and they knew what they could get away with. Dudley was the one who hurt me more than his parents, but if something happens to the family, well I won't bat an eyelid. They aren't my family. I've gotten hold of my parents' diaries. They paint an uglier picture of the Dursleys than what I've got in mind already.**_

 _ **I don't know when I'll be back.**_

 _ **But please, don't try to interfere. Don't try to drag me back to Britain, I'll be locked away if you do that. I need to go away somewhere, and continue sessions with a mind healer. Dumbledore said he'd help, but I don't trust the man; he would do his best to limit any contact with the magical world, giving the Dursleys the permission they need to make my summer hell. I don't need it, and if you interfere and I end up back with that bunch of muggles, I will never forgive you. Then again, I'm not forgiving anyone at the moment. You spent 12 years in prison, so you know how that feels. Would you want me to go through that? It's harsh, but I'm right. You know what its like to lose your freedom, and that is what will happen if you tell Dumbledore about this letter.**_

 _ **I don't know what the old man has planned, but I doubt its good - he was willing to deny me a mind healer so I could cope after that night in the graveyard; if he wanted to do that, then who know what he might do?**_

 _ **You let me down once already by giving into your desire to go after Pettigrew. Please don't do the same here and now.**_

 _ **I don't know what you're doing now, but please try to get out of Dumbledore's influence, and also try to stay out of trouble.**_

 _ **I'll be back as soon as I can.**_

 _ **Love**_

 _ **Juniper.**_

Sirius put the letter down on the table, deep in thought about what the letter had said. He felt numb with grief over what Juniper had written in the letter she'd sent, but what upset him the most was how she had pointed out how reckless he had been when Lily and James had been killed, and he had to swallow the anger at how she had had no qualms about pointing out it was his stupid recklessness that cost him his freedom; if he hadn't found a way to getting Juniper off Hagrid, and going straight to the Ministry to prove his innocence, then he would never have been locked away.

 _Just like Lily_ , he thought to himself, remembering how the redhead had constantly pointed out to him and James how stupid they had been from time to time.

She had told him that his thoughtlessness would get him into trouble, and she had been right.

When he head someone stamping down the stairs, he instantly shoved the letter back into his pocket. He would destroy it later.

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Four years later.

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Juniper Potter stepped out into the early morning air as she got her luggage from the airport. The moment she was out of the airport, she paused and sighed. There was a mist in the air that didn't seem to want to disappear despite the bright sun hanging overhead. As she left the airport and boarded a train to take her deep into the city to her parents' old townhouse, she took a good long look at the passengers.

They all looked depressed, solemn, silent and they had a drained manner that looked like they had not been happy in a very long time. Even the kids sitting in the carriage were sitting quietly, though one or two of them were trying valiantly to act like children their age, but their attempts didn't last long.

Juniper sighed sadly and looked out of the window. Britain had been isolated by the magical communities around the world, and after visiting some of their enclaves in countries like France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Russia, and Romania, Juniper knew their Ministries were tightening up their security. Unlike the muggles, they were aware of what was happening in her home country, but then again so did she, but because they were much closer to Britain than she had been for the last two years, they knew a lot more than what was in the newspapers.

Lord Voldemort had begun moving openly at the end of what would have been her fifth year at Hogwarts. Juniper had been surprised when she had seen the copy of the international magical news, the picture of showing Voldemort's serpentine visage twisted with anger as he stood in the British Ministry of Magic itself, duelling Albus Dumbledore in a heated battle. What in the name of Merlin was he doing there? Juniper had thought Voldemort would have wanted to spend another couple of years spending time hidden in the shadows, moving his followers into positions of power in the magical world, and spreading all kinds of misinformation that would cause the Ministry to make dozens of mistakes.

At the time she had been surprised, and even asked herself why he was moving so fast? Surely he had lots to do before he felt it was safe to move into the open. There was one later article that said Voldemort had been looking for a prophecy, and Juniper remembered reading her parents diaries about why they'd gone into hiding. It just seemed so ridiculous that her parents would hide because of something like that, but now she knew it was the truth.

To make matters worse, Fudge had tried capitalising on it, but during the chaos of Voldemort's return and him denying it for a full year, having the Prophet print all that shit about her and Dumbledore, and the attempted murder on Amelia Bones and the capture of Peter Pettigrew which cleared Sirius Black's name, he was finished.

No-one knew that she had had a hand in both incidents, and for now she wanted to keep it that way. She had wanted Amelia Bones to survive since the moment they'd met she had found the older witch bearable. In the case of Peter, it was a simple matter of justice comes to all.

Juniper didn't feel any relief when she got out at the various interchanges to get back to the townhouse, the platforms and the trains she switched to were full of gloomy people, even the tourists were affected. There were newspapers with headlines reading; "WHEN WILL THIS FOG LIFT?" Or "DOWN IN THE DUMPS - WHAT IS WONG WITH EVERYONE?!"

Reading those newspaper headlines made Juniper sigh. She knew precisely what was causing the mist, what was making everyone miserable. It was typical Dementor behaviour.

But her heart plummeted like stone out of a plane when she saw the next headline about people being landed in hospital who were virtually catatonic and unresponsive. Another newspaper had a similar headline.

Typical muggles, she thought to herself as she read how many of them had been admitted into hospitals all over the country. She knew it wasn't their fault, they had no idea that there was nothing they could do to help those people. They didn't know their souls had been sucked out and there was no way they could get them back. Magical Britain was the only country in the magical community that allowed Dementors to exist, all the others had extremely rigid laws that expressly forbade their existence for the very reason that was happening here and now.

Juniper sighed as she walked away. She had been surprised when she had learnt Dementors were so scarce in the magical world they were only likely to be found in Magical Britain. No country in their right mind would allow them to exist, they caused problems for the Statute of Secrecy when they got out, and with their powers of draining the happiness from their victims and replacing them with unease and a feeling of despair, not to mention their deadly kiss where the only means of getting rid of them was with the Patronus charm which not many witches and wizards used because of its power, it was no wonder the magical world beyond Britain had laws.

As she sat on the train, she wondered how many Dementors were prowling the country, sucking out souls everyday and night. Juniper closed her eyes and wondered if the British Ministry would ever learn from its mistakes.

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She was incredibly tense when she arrived at the townhouse. There were other newspapers with even grimmer headlines, pictures of the Dark Mark hanging ominously, the tongue twisting malevolently as it twisted in the sky. The Death Eaters were certainly on the move, and considering the number of attacks and how their symbol was in the muggle newspapers, it didn't look good for the Ministry's abilities to mitigate.

There were also headlines of more attacks by the mysterious terrorist group plaguing Britain, how the attacks were becoming more destructive with each encounter, how hundreds were being killed with means they didn't get - there were no bullet wounds to the bodies, and no knife injuries. Some of the headlines and newspaper articles talked about how the terrorism was causing problems for the tourist trade, and for trading.

Juniper was not surprised to read about the kidnappings, mostly of women and young children; she knew why the woman were being kidnapped, they would be raped like she had been when she was fourteen. The Death Eaters would shove them into brothels, or make shift brothels and force themselves on her. In their twisted minds that was all muggle women and girls were good for, sex and nothing else.

The children, on the other hand…..

She shook her head, feeling sick just thinking about it as she unlocked the doors to her family home. Dobby and Winky had had a lot of work to do over the last few years, and once more she was glad she had bonded with the two elves. She knew that Hermione with her SPEW obsession had nearly killed the elves at Hogwarts, but she had told the elves to watch out for the traps, and if they saw anything suspicious they were to leave it alone, or levitate the offending hats into a fire.

Juniper didn't care about Hermione's opinions anymore, they were not friends and hadn't been for 4 years. She dropped her bag on the floor and closed the door with a sigh before she went over to the thermostat, and cranked the heat up. When she was finished, Dobby and Winky appeared.

"Mistress Juniper!" The male elf squealed and hugged her tightly while Winky followed suit.

"Hi, Dobby," Juniper smiled down at the little elves that hugged her. "How are you two doing?"

"Mistress cares about House-elves!" Winky cried happily; even after all this time it amazed Juniper her elves were that surprised. After the customary squealing, the elves went about to give her a lovely meal while she rested.

Juniper watched the news, but ten minutes later she turned over, flicking through the channels until she found either a movie, a comedy, or a drama that could take away the grimness of the news broadcasts, trying valiantly to shake off the guilt she was feeling; she had left the British magical world so she could learn how to fight, but she had only allowed the Death Eaters to have their ranks swelled.

On the one hand, she had lots of Death Eaters to kill, to avenge not just herself, but also every other person - man, woman, and child - who'd been murdered by those animals. When she was about to prepare for bed, Juniper opened her bags that Dobby and Winky had brought back.

She unzipped three of the bags and took out a number of small boxes made from dark wood. She gently put them in a neat pile near her bed, opening them up and inspecting the contents for a second before she closed them up and put them in the growing pile.

When she was finished she headed for the bathroom, using her wand to clean her teeth but she used muggle soap to clean her face before she began to run a bath. The House elves had once fretted about her starting a bath by herself, but Juniper had put a stop to them long ago. She told Dobby and Winky she liked doing things like that for herself, and besides they had more than enough work to keep themselves busy.

THAT was what she'd said, what she'd privately thought was the Dursleys had forced her to become independent, and she wasn't going to let anyone, not even two of the best House-elves in existence, take that from her; she had made the mistake of being too trusting with some of the students at Hogwarts.

No more.

She had learnt her lesson.

When she stripped and got into the bath, she smiled at the sensation of the hot water as it eased the soreness of her muscles. She hated flying the muggle way, but she was still paranoid about her own safety, and she knew the wizards had no way of tracking her down if she used muggle means to get from place to place, but they were just so inefficient. They stank. They used a lot of fuel, and chucked out what was left until it stank out the sky.

Their planes were massive, but everybody was crammed into them like sardines in a tin. Their food was appalling, and their toilet facilities were practically zero.

"Fuck," she whispered to herself as she relaxed. It took Juniper a while to realise she should wash herself, not just relax.

"Fuck," she said again when she forced herself to move.

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A few days later, Juniper was standing outside the muggle entrance to the Ministry of Magic, wondering if she should do this or not. Encountering the Ministry of Magic wasn't on her list of important things to do, but she had to admit there were pros and cons to coming here. On the one hand, she could have avoided the issue altogether by not coming here.

But she needed the Ministry's permission, ironically enough considering her history of rushing into messes, to do what she needed to do. She hadn't wanted to admit needing their permission for anything. She had never had much respect for the Ministry personally thanks to her poor dealings with them over the years she'd been at Hogwarts. But for her plans to work, Amelia Bones and Rufus Scrimgeour both needed to be aware of the truth of Voldemort's immortality, and besides considering what was happening and how much they were dealing with already, they should be begging for help.

She sighed and walked towards the battered telephone box which was the muggle entrance to the Ministry - when she had first heard about the Ministry, she had had something different in mind, but she had to admit the British Ministry had had the right idea keeping their seats of government underground where the muggles couldn't touch them, though that might change if the muggles decided to build yet another Underground line through it.

Well, that was their problem, not hers. When the phone descended down into the depths of the Ministry, Juniper could tell with one glance they weren't taking any chances. There were Aurors and other wizards guarding the Floo entrances around a massive golden statue which looked heavily damaged, all of them looking alert, but the other witches and wizards who clearly worked here didn't look happy about being here. There were signs of destruction throughout the Ministry's atrium which was probably grand at one point, but that had changed.

According to the international newspapers, the Ministry of Magic had been infiltrated quite a few times after that night Voldemort had appeared in the dead of night four years before, and each attack had been designed to cause a massive amount of terror and destruction. Piles of rubble were littered around the atrium, roped off from the general public. The newspaper articles despatched around the world was one reason why countries around the world were preparing for the worst, because if a Dark Lord as vicious and as insane as Tom Riddle could get into the Ministry, then he would definitely cause trouble abroad. The Ministry of Magic here were desperate to fight back, Juniper could feel it in the air, but they didn't know how.

Juniper could see them glancing worriedly at the fireplaces which glowed green whenever someone appeared and the moment they arrived, an Auror would instantly check their forearms for the Dark Mark. It seemed Scrimgeour and Bones' had learnt from the mistakes of the past and had finally learnt to take precautions.

Heading over to the wizard on guard duty, who had two Aurors standing near him, both appearing absurdly young for their age and looking like they both wished they were anywhere but here, Juniper waited until the wizard was finished with another witch before he turned his attention to her.

"Next," he said blandly. "Wand on the scales."

Juniper handed him the wand, mentally telling the runes embedded in the body to not activate the defence mechanisms.

The guard wizard checked the piece of parchment that appeared. His eyes widened slightly in surprise at what was on the parchment. "10 inches, made from willow, oak and holly, inner ceramic core, magical crystal core, with runes embedded into the crystal and in the ceramic and wood with additional features," he whispered in surprise and awe. He looked up at Juniper in surprise. "This is a custom wand. Been in use for four years."

Juniper nodded. "Yes."

"Why are you here?"

This was it, the moment of truth. "Tell Amelia Bones that Juniper Potter is here. And tell her, I know how to destroy the Dark Lord."

A sudden silence fell across the atrium at the mention of her name, and she was surprised by how easily her voice had carried, but then she realised that she had made the mistake of not taking into account no-one had been speaking. Oh no.

The guard wizard was looking like he was about to have a heart attack, he had been speaking to the Girl Who Lived all the time and she had handed him her wand.

Juniper rolled her eyes. "When you're not busy," she added sharply before looking around the atrium at the myriad of faces looking at her with expressions of awe, shock, and even anger. "Well, don't you people have work to do?"

Everyone suddenly realised they their own businesses to take care of, and they hurried off to work.

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Rufus Scrimgeour, the Minister for Magic, was a leonine man who was far more impressive than Cornelius Fudge had ever been, and he had the look of a man hardened by stress and grief. Juniper idly wondered how Fudge would have fared with the war if he'd somehow managed to cling to power, but she quickly pushed that thought out of her mind. Fudge would have caved long ago until the Ministry of Magic fell into Voldemort's misbegotten hands.

Standing nearby was Amelia Bones, looking much older than she had the last time Juniper had seen her as a fourteen year old, but she had a few new additions to her face; she had a managed to escaped Voldemort's attack a few years previously when the bastard had personally attacked her family home with the intent of killing her and tying up a dangerous enemy. The fact he would be continuing to drive another bloodline to the brink of extinction meant nothing to him.

Juniper had saved her life with the aid of Dobby and Winky, and it was lucky she had been in the country at the time to find and at last deal with Peter Pettigrew and put an end to Fudge's powerbase.

Scrimgeour looked away from the young woman before him. Juniper wondered how he appeared to her, and she was tempted to look into his mind with her legilimency, but she didn't know if the wizard before him knew what a probe looked like, but he imagined Madam Bones did, and from what she remembered of the older witch, she wasn't the type to overlook something like that.

"Well, Miss Potter," he said wearily as if he found every moment a chore, "you said in the atrium you knew how to deal with He-Who-Must-Be-Named. Get on with it and tell us what it is!"

Juniper sighed when she heard the desperation in the man's voice, but she knew that she had to stay in control. "First things' first," she began and looked at the other witch standing near Bones, and the recognisable form of Percy Weasley, "can I speak to you both in private? My terms are not negotiable; what's more important? Two assistants, or the future of your community and the Statute of Secrecy?"

Scrimgeour stiffened and he nodded at the two to leave. Once they were out of the door, Juniper took her wand out and cast a number of spells around the room while both Scrimgeour and Bones watched in surprise and even a bit of concern at what she did, but they relaxed when they realised all she had done was ward the doors and silence the room.

"Before I begin, I have a condition - and before you say anything, I'm well within my rights - and its non-negotiable; I want a magically binding oath from the pair of you that you won't prosecute me because my methods for dealing with the Death Eaters will be….. shall we say, not nice?"

"What have the Death Eaters got to do with defeating He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?" Scrimgeour demanded.

Juniper smiled and leaned closer. "Give the oaths, and I'll tell you the secret of the Dark Lord aka Tom Riddle."

Scrimgeour and Bones gave their oaths, deciding that the oath was a small price to pay to dealing with the Dark Lord.

Juniper was silent while she mentally rewound the oaths in her mind before she nodded in satisfaction. "Right, what do you know about Horcruxes?"

Scrimgeour and Bones stiffened in surprise and horror. "He created Horcruxes?" Scrimgeour whispered in horror.

"Is that how he survived all this time?"

Holding up two fingers Juniper said, "He made two; one planned, one not planned. I know he's put up the Taboo curse on Britain so anyone who says his name will be instantly killed, so I'll call him Riddle which is his real name. Riddle was a student in the 1940s at Hogwarts, and he was obsessed with immortality. At the same time, London was devastated by the Second World War. Riddle managed to survive while he lived in muggle London. When he managed to escape, he took refuge in Knockturn Alley and he found a couple of books; one of them was a copy of The Darkest Arts, which had details of the Horcrux ritual, and the second book was a copy of a journal written by the captain of a magical exploration ship. Both had details of a form of immortality that he could use."

"How could a book about magical exploration help him become immortal?"

"One of the crew was sick, and the captain created a link via a runic tattoo that connected him to the ship, which absorbed the magical energy and passed it to the man's dying body. Riddle took the two means to become immortal; he had the means to tear a piece of his soul out, and he had plans to bind his followers to him. The only problem was he wasn't sure which one to go for, so he decided to do both. When he returned to Hogwarts, he unleashed the so-called monster of Slytherin when he opened the Chamber of Secrets. He used the creature to terrorise the school while all the time preparing the ritual to create his Horcrux."

Juniper took out a phial containing a memory. "Here's a memory of what happened in the Chamber of Secrets in case you don't believe me, though I don't really care if you do. But anyway, during that year a muggleborn witch called Myrtle Warren died." She looked at Madam Bones. "You'd know her as Moaning Myrtle, the witch who haunted the second floor girl's bathrooms."

Madam Bones grimaced and Juniper knew what she was thinking. Moaning Myrtle had caused a lot of trouble during the years for girls at Hogwarts.

"During that time, Riddle got Hagrid framed for something he hadn't done, though Hagrid didn't do himself any favours. The death of Myrtle, the attacks on the muggleborns, the framing of Hagrid… It hid the fact Riddle had created his Horcrux. He regretted it quickly. It was a painful process, something that the book hadn't described. The book also didn't say he would be spending the best part of a month recovering from the effects, but he never felt the same after that, so he decided to look for another way to become immortal, so he chose the runic tattoo. He altered it a little, and then came up with the Dark Mark."

"Which he used to brand the Death Eaters, " Amelia said.

Juniper nodded. "They've been keeping him alive all this time," she whispered, "and because of weak-willed morons like Cornelius Fudge, and holier than thou fools like Dumbledore, they have been feeding their magic to Riddle this whole time, so he would always come back."

Scrimgeour leaned forward, his eyes scrunched together into a dark frown. "How do you know this?"

Juniper sighed. "I said Voldemort created two Horcruxes, one he created deliberately. The second was purely accidental. His soul was badly damaged, and the night he attacked my parents - don't ask me what my parents did to survive, but it must have needed a lot of magic perform - it tore a piece of his soul out and it was embedded in the only living person in the room where he was torn out of his body. Me. Didn't you ever wonder what was in that stupid scar? Don't worry," she added when both Bones and Scrimgeour stiffened with horror and more than a little worry that she was there, in case they felt she was a danger, "the Horcrux has been removed. I went to the goblins during my time after Voldemort's resurrection when I was making my arrangements to leave the British Magical World. I was so tired and I needed to get away. They found it in my scar, and after a bit of persuasion, they took it out."

Juniper took a deep breath. This was the moment of truth. "I've become a Curse-Breaker, and we regularly deal with Horcruxes, its amazing how many of the fucking things are made. And we have a means of dealing with them, and that means the goblins can do it as well. I told them to hold it in a maximum security vault away from Gringotts. I wanted time to go away and train in quiet without Dumbledore's interference."

Amelia looked at her shrewdly. "There's more to that isn't there?"

Juniper sighed. "Yeah, there is," she admitted. "I want the Death Eaters."

"What?' Scrimgeour asked in surprise. Every time he spoke to Dumbledore and the subject shifted to Juniper Potter, the old wizard said time and again she was important for fighting He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, not the Death Eaters. Dumbledore kept saying the Death Eaters could be dealt with after wards, but Scrimgeour had become tired of the growing casualties, and thanks to Fudge's stupidity the DMLE was in shambles and they had needed to conscript as many new Aurors as they could while trying to keep the war away from the muggles, though they hadn't had much in the way of luck. Fudge had spent years being bribed by the likes of Nott and Malfoy, and the department was ruined. There had been few Aurors in the Department and Fudge had made it incredibly hard for them to investigate crimes. It had been a nightmare when they had tried to find the culprits behind the attack at the Quidditch World Cup, not helped by Fudge and his band of morons.

They had needed to look out for talented people in Defence at Hogwarts, but the curse on the DADA position made it difficult because all of the teachers were useless while idiots like Umbridge talked about how the class should be disbanded, though she was shut up quickly.

A thought was dawning in his mind that Juniper Potter had deliberately left the magical world for it to fall into chaos, but he didn't dare say anything in case she vanished again.

Juniper looked at the Minister and the head of the DMLE. "Riddle is marking new followers all the time," she said, "but I want the ones who were there when he came back four years ago. I want to kill the Death Eaters who raped me, I want to avenge the people the Death Eaters murdered as part of their initiation. Dumbledore claims the Death Eaters can be redeemed, where is the redemption of murdering and raping an innocent child in front of a jeering crowd?"

She sat back with a sigh. "Look, I want you both to know I plan to go to the goblins and tell them to perform the ritual, but between those times I plan to kill the Death Eaters. I want you to know I will be crossing the line, but I also want to be promised you will not interfere. I know that because of Fudge's actions, you've had to rely on bounty hunters to capture the Death Eaters, dead or alive. I want the same deal; I don't care if it sounds mercenary, but I want it. I alone can tell the goblins what to do, so you don't have too much choice."

Okay, Juniper knew it was bad form blackmailing the Minister of Magic and the Head of the DMLE, but they were desperate for aid and they wanted the war ended.

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Once the contract was drawn up (Juniper was smirking inwardly at how unhappy Percy Weasley was when he drew it up for her, clearly not liking how she was made above the law), Juniper and the two Ministry officials had an amicable conversation until an announcement said over the intercom that the Death Eaters were attacking and they were being held off in the atrium.

Scrimgeour, Bones and Juniper got up and headed in the direction of the atrium. "I think they know I'm here," Juniper said as she took out her wand, "I said my name out aloud in the atrium, and everyone overheard me. Any number of them could have gotten word out."

Her heart chilled when she realised that if Voldemort knew she was here then that meant Dumbledore could also know.

The trio arrived at the atrium. The Death Eaters had already killed a dozen witches and wizards, but they were holed up in the atrium. Amelia and Rufus looked as Juniper, without a word from them, stepped forwards, her wand snapping out spells, and then they followed suit.

Juniper was letting loose a barrage of dangerous spells and curses against the Death Eaters, killing three with blood boiling spells that made her victims scream in agony as the blood boiled their organs and their skin evaporated. Another Death Eater let loose a killing curse, but Juniper levitated a large chunk of the fountain to intercept the spell, wrecking what was left of the chunk of gold. But she didn't let it drop to the ground; she banished the pieces against the Death Eaters before she waved her wand and whipped their masks off.

"Potter!" One of them said snidely, and she recognised Draco Malfoy.

"Draco, how nice to see you gain," Juniper purred, unnerving the Death Eater but she didn't give him the chance to say anything else before they erupted into a fight. As they fought, Juniper used a combination of household spells and low powered curses that were designed to make Malfoy angry that she wasn't taking him seriously, but she knew he would make a mistake. Malfoy wasn't smart enough to see a trap when it was unfolding before his eyes. She also fired curses that deliberately missed him and impacted on the walls to disorientate and confuse him, all that time she waited for him to fire more powerful spells at her.

Juniper had to admit Malfoy knew his stuff, but he was too reliant on overpowered curses and spells that only taxed him out, and then finally he began to get tired. Perfect. She launched a blasting curse at him close to his wand, and he only just managed to cast a shield, but the curses had forced him into a literal corner of the atrium, and another spell removed his wand from his hand.

Malfoy was defenceless. She smirked at his fear in her eyes, but she pointed her wand. "Goodbye," she said simply, "Avada Kedavra."

The killing curse hit Malfoy in the chest and he fell to the ground, dead.

Juniper turned around and noticed with irritation the presence of the Order of the Phoenix. Many of their members looked shocked at what she had just done, others were shaking their head, saying she had gone "dark" and Albus Dumbledore was looking at her in horror and anger.

In the end, Juniper had only one thing to say to him. "Hello, Headmaster."

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Juniper stepped forwards, and the Order of the Phoenix levelled their wands at her, as if afraid she was going to attack Dumbledore. But she ignored them. "How are you?" she asked the old wizard amicably as if she hadn't run away, and she hadn't just murdered someone in cold blood.

"What have you done?!" Dumbledore roared in outrage as he took the time to look at the death bodies of the Death Eaters, Juniper followed his gaze as it surveyed the room. "You've murdered the Death Eaters?!"

Juniper snickered and then she giggled madly. It took her a moment to recover her composure. "You notice that?" she looked around the atrium at the survivors of the massacre, those members of the Ministry who had either taken refuge and hidden instead of fighting back, who were now peeking out now it was safe. "He cares only about the Death Eaters, the bastards who have just attacked you and murdered your friends, but he doesn't give a shit about you." All humour left her face as she sneered at Dumbledore. "How long have you been allowing these bastards to attack, all the time sending those you've caught to Azkaban? How does it feel to know you've only given them a brief holiday, knowing they will be back to kill again and again?"

"They can be redeemed, Juniper, you have strayed from the Light-," Dumbledore tried to say but the young woman interrupted him.

"Have I? You and I have our own opinions about what makes someone good or evil, Dumbledore," Juniper said, "but soon you'll know the truth."

With a wave of her wand, a cloud of thick black smoke erupted between her and the Order of the Phoenix, and she fired a few blasting curses at their general direction before she rushed towards the fireplaces. The cloud was a basic magic trick, easy for Dumbledore to disperse, but the blasting curses were stopped him before he could even wave his own wand.

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In the weeks following the return of Juniper Potter, the Ministry of Magic and the majority of the magical world were overjoyed when many of the Death Eaters were reported dead through a multitude of means. Some of them were stabbed, either in the neck or the check, others found themselves poisoned, their bloodstreams full of veritaserum and poison. Always attached to their bodies was a list of their crimes, and they varied, and because many of them were dumped in a public place the citizens of the magical world could see for themselves what that particular Death Eater had done.

Other Death Eaters were mutilated, some of them had their skin burnt off their faces, their eyes gouged open.

No magical signature apart from the potions found in their systems was found on their bodies, but everyone knew that Juniper Potter was responsible, and every night she crossed out the various names on her list.

She had been compiling a list of names of all the Death Eaters and their associates. When she had been busy with school abroad and learning how to become a Curse-Breaker, Juniper had been gathering intelligence from Pettigrew when she caught him about who some of the other Death Eaters were besides the ones she knew about. Pettigrew had given her quite a list, but she had gone deeper by sending Dobby and Winky to Britain whenever she didn't need them to gather names. The House elves hadn't liked it, but they had done their duty. They knew what their mistress planned to do with the list they compiled.

With each name crossed out on the list, ten more took their place. They were not Death Eaters, but they bought into the ideology but they didn't see the point in wasteful murder, not when they could profit on it. Many of these names owned little brothels which held muggle women and children.

Juniper crossed those names out while sending letters to Amelia Bones and Rufus Scrimgeour about leads on the black market and the brothels they knew the Death Eaters had.

One of the names was Dolores Umbridge. Juniper had never met the woman personally, but when she met the woman she was amazed by the toad bitch's stupidity. She was a Death Eater, and a spy for Voldemort. Voldemort had branded her on the woman's calf because he had known the Ministry would only look for the mark on their arms.

Umbridge also ran a brothel, a highly successful one, for the Death Eaters, and her connections with the Ministry allowed her access to all kinds of information. Juniper killed her by shoving slashing her throat.

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"I can't find anything in here, Rufus," Amelia said at last, her eyes tired after straining themselves to see, but everytime she focused on another piece of parchment, she had to resist the urge to scream. She was tired of this. The death of Dolores Umbridge and the news she had leaked confidential information to the Dark Lord had come as a blow to Amelia Bones and Rufus Scrimgeourr, and they had to work overtime to find out just how much the bitch had known.

"I can't find anything either, Amelia," Scrimgeour sighed, wishing that Percy Weasley was here so then he could work the obsequious little puppy to death by doing this. "She must have covered her tracks, duplicated documents and shoved the copies back, but its impossible to find out for sure. Everything in the stupid Ministry is magic, we'd never find out if something was copied by a spell since they're all copied and placed in the archives for posterity."

Amelia closed her eyes. "I wish Juniper had made this easier and just told us what kind of documents Umbridge stole to hand over to him," she muttered.

"Perhaps she thought about it," Scrimgeour commented, "but she might have realised it would have taken too long. Even witches have little patience for bureaucracy."

"Don't I know it," Amelia said looking around the office again, "why did you leave Umbridge alone after you fired her from the Undersecretary position anyway?"

"I wish I hadn't now. I kept her on because I knew her abilities as an administrator," Rufus confessed, "but if I'd known what she was really doing, I'd have personally shoved her into the waiting arms of a Dementor."

Amelia believed him.

"Amelia, I've wanted to ask this for a while," Rufus began and the Head of the DMLE turned to face him curiously as she clearly wondered what he was about to say. "Juniper Potter. You saw her after he returned, didn't you?"

"Yes, I did," Amelia sighed, "and I'll never forget it. I knew Lily and James Potter. They were both brilliant. I'd wanted to take her in and raise her alongside Susan, you know, give my niece someone to play with. But Dumbledore always prevented it. When I saw the girl after she'd been kidnapped from the graveyard…..," Amelia closed her eyes and shook her head, "she was like a wild animal, frightened and backed into a corner. But she tried hard to appear stronger. Her face was covered with bruises, and I knew she was in worse pain in other parts of her body. She gave me those names of the Death Eaters who'd raped her, but Fudge stopped me from doing anything about them. I hated him for that."

Amelia looked at her hands. "I hate what she has become, but I understand it," she admitted to her silent audience, "I've wanted to go after the Death Eaters myself, especially after my family were murdered!" She took a deep breath to hold back the anger. "What I hated the most was how Dumbledore kept saying to people, in that holier than thou way of his, we should be better than them, and not lower ourselves to murdering them."

Scrimgeour was about to say something when an Auror on night duty rushed into the office. "What is it?" Amelia asked; she had given orders to the Aurors to come directly to Umbridge's former office in case any thing happened.

The witch took a deep breath. "It's the ex-Minister, Fudge," she said breathlessly, "he's just been dropped out of the floo, dead. He has the Dark Mark on his forearm, and he has a long piece of parchment pinned to what's left of his clothes, giving a list of his crimes as a Death Eater. He joined the Dark Lord six months before the Potters were murdered."

Amelia and Rufus looked at each other, and they rushed to the atrium.

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Cornelius Fudge's body was lying slumped on the ground, vicious bruises standing vividly in purple marbled the skin of his face, and his head was lying at an unnatural angle. The clothes he was wearing were ragged and yet the Dark Mark was emblazoned on his arm.

Rufus and Amelia were looking at the list of things he had done. Fudge hadn't been a very important Death Eater according to the list, but he was still guilty of passing information along to the Death Eaters. Fudge hadn't had a very big position at first, but he had heard a great deal, and he had passed that information along to his friends in the Death Eater ranks, but after murdering and raping a child, a four year old girl, he had never killed anybody, and had never gone out on raids. "Well, at least we know now one of the reasons why he was so keen on keeping Sirius Black in prison," Amelia commented as her brain worked it out, "he didn't know he was innocent, but he was helping get rid of one of the enemies of the Dark Lord. And when the Dark Lord was reborn, he knew it was true, but he knew that he would want to spend time hiding and rebuilding his forces. All along as the minister, he helped to undermine the Ministry from within. Now it all makes sense," Amelia shook her head.

Rufus looked down at the corpse of his predecessor. "Remind me to put a bonus in Juniper's vault."

"Are we going to report this to the public?"

"Not yet. We don't want to shake up the confidence in the Ministry, even if it is on shaky ground," Rufus replied. "We need the support of the people if we're to succeed, but in time everyone will know."

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Juniper sighed as she turned in her sleep, a smile on her face.

It was over, the war was over.

The night before, she had told the goblins that the time had come to drain the Horcrux of its magic and they fed the magical energy into the wards of Gringott's bank, so the Death Eaters would finally give something back instead of constantly taking from others. But she knew precisely where their main base was, and thanks to Dobby and Winky, she would be going to the homes of the other Inner circle Death Eaters who'd raped and tortured her that night.

By now Voldemort would be dead, and his remaining followers would either be dead or dying since their magic would be resembling the body of a farm animal in an abattoir that was being drained of blood. Juniper got out of bed and had a shower, some breakfast. Later on, Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix, with Amelia and Rufus and a few Aurors arrived in Malfoy Manor.

The moment they arrived they stopped in horror at the bloodstained floor, and the corpses of the Death Eaters. Juniper's eyes picked out Sirius, and she nodded at him, unsure of how he'd react to her being a murderess.

"What have you done?!" Dumbledore bellowed.

"Voldemort is dead. Look," she said, pointing at a hand, a smaller pool of blood and a small pile of white dust, surrounded by black robes and dragonhide boots, "the components for his ritual; flesh of the servant, blood of the enemy, and bone from the father. All here. He's dead."

Dumbledore walked over to the pile and examined the remains silently for a few minutes before he looked up into Juniper's eyes. "How?" he whispered. "This is impossible!"

Suddenly Juniper understood, and she chuckled before she gave out a full-blown belly laugh. "You're speaking of the Horcrux in my scar, aren't you? Yes," she added quickly before the old wizard could say anything about her knowledge of the soul pieces, though she wasn't surprised by the look of disbelief on the face of Bill Weasley, "I know about what Voldemort did. And I bet you've been trying to find the fake ones Voldemort's created. Newsflash, they never existed," she said in a stage whisper.

Juniper sighed when she saw the look of disbelief crossing Dumbledore's face. "I, Juniper Lily Potter, do hereby swear on my life, that I am telling the truth about Lord Voldemort's plan. So mote it be!"

Dumbledore's jaw dropped in shock when he saw Juniper was still standing up. She was telling the truth. He sat down heavily on a nearby table, uncaring if it was covered in blood or not. His mind felt as if it had been blown out of his brain with this news, and the realisation all these years of manipulating people and even manipulating this young woman to her certain death was for nothing.

"Horcruxes are pieces of the soul, created through a ritual involving the murder of an innocent soul, a child basically," she ignored the gasps and the looks of nausea on the faces of the Order members, "the more younger the child, the better. Voldemort discovered it when he was in London during the Blitz. For those who don't know, the London Blitz took place in the last world war of the muggles. The Germans sent their planes - flying machines - to the city, and they were armed with a payload of bombs. The British knew the Germans would bomb anything and anywhere there was light, so they darkened the city. The Germans just dropped the bombs at random, and if they happened to destroy something of value to Britains infrastructure, great."

"But the muggles had evacuated the children living in the city, and yet Tom Riddle wasn't evacuated. He managed to escape to the sanctuary of Diagon Alley to live out the summer. While he was there, he found two books in Knockturn Alley. One was a copy of The Darkest Arts, another was a copy of a magical journal about a magical explorer. The books offered clues to immortality. The Darkest Arts gave him the Horcrux ritual, and he used it to create his first and only consciously made Horcrux at Hogwarts, at the expense of Moaning Myrtle's life, and Hagrid's education."

Juniper paused and looked at her old headmaster with sudden pity. "Do you get get it now? Voldemort was leading you along the whole time, he knew that you'd find out about his knowledge of the Horcruxes, and so he planned to leave a fake trail for you to find; he staged a conversation with Professor Slughorn and gave him a potion that compelled him to wipe his memory, knowing you'd find it, but leaving enough for you to work with, and he tracked down the artefacts of the Founders, but he had no intention of using them as Horcruxes, but he hid them like they were. Creating a Horcrux caused him a lot of pain, it took him ages to recover. The diary was the only one he was aware of, but he didn't know he put one in my head."

"What?!" Sirius barked like his dog form. Juniper looked at him and nodded. "Voldemort's soul was damaged," she explained, "and whatever happened with my parents last night, it did more than tear him from his body when the killing curse rebounded and struck him, it tore a piece of his soul off and it was embedded in my head. Dumbledore knew and just left it, didn't you?" She turned back to the old wizard, who was looking sick.

"Is that true?" Sirius demanded angrily. "What were you going to do, force my goddaughter to sacrifice herself for your stupid Greater Good? She was right about you, you constantly preach to people they need to make sacrifices, but it's not necessary."

"The goblins removed the piece of his soul from my mind," Juniper said over Sirius' angry statement; she agreed with him that Dumbledore needed to face reality, but there was always time for that later. "I had them transfer some of his memories into my mind, and I'm glad I did. I knew Voldemort better than he knew himself, and I saw that the reason why he survived for so long when he should have been killed by the rebounding killing curse has been under your noses the whole time."

"It has?" Sirius whispered.

"What is it, then, lass?" 'Mad-eye' Moody growled.

Juniper pointed towards the Death Eaters. "The Death Eaters, they were keeping him alive," she said.

With the announcement, Moody yelled at Dumbledore, "You fool, Dumbledore, we kept telling you they should be killed, that you should let us kill them instead of slapping their wrists and telling them to go on their merry way, but no, you had to say they should be redeemed. Now we hear they've been keeping that bastard alive all along."

"I didn't know," Dumbledore whispered; Juniper wondered if this was a bit too much for the old wizard, but she decided that he had to hear all this.

"That second book, the one I mentioned Riddle had bought along with that copy of The Darkest Arts? The one with the magical explorers? Well, in the story one of the sailors had been dying, so the captain created a magical runic tattoo and bound the sailor to the ship, allowing the magic the ship absorbed and used to travel and take the crew to where they wanted to be, to filter into his body. The magic of the ship kept the sailor alive and healthy. Voldemort found other references to a similar technique used by other Dark Lords, who used it to siphon into the magic of their followers, allowing them to live a little longer themselves while using their magic to appear more powerful than they were in reality," Juniper said, "that's one of the reasons I've been killing the Death Eaters, Headmaster. They can't be redeemed, and if one of them survived then we would have been fighting this miserable war again and again until there was nothing left. The goblins teach their Curse-Breakers a ritual about how to deal with Horcruxes, don't they Bill?" She smirked when the older Weasley child started at his inclusion into this mess, but he nodded.

Moody looked even more angry at Dumbledore. "You could have taken that thing out of the girl's head if you'd just asked Weasley for help, but no, the great Albus Dumbledore can never do that, can he? He must always know best."

By the time the dust settled, they finally noticed that Juniper Potter had vanished.

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A few days later Juniper was sitting in an expensive restaurant, waiting for Sirius to arrive. She felt like dancing, she was so happy the war was over and that she was finally free of the manipulations of Dumbledore. She had left Malfoy Manor when Moody had started on the old wizard, deciding that she didn't need to be there anymore since her part was over, and besides she didn't really want a reunion with anyone except Sirius, but she had given it a couple of days before sending an invitation where she would be.

The magical world was rebuilding from the damage caused by Voldemort and the Death Eaters, but she had told Amelia and Rufus Scrimgeour to hide the fact Voldemort had made a Horcrux and everything else, believing that the next Dark Lord may be inspired to use the same methods to become more magically powerful than they were. At first she was tempted to let the two decide, but she had decided to step in. So now, no one knew precisely how Voldemort died, except that she had used a form of magic on him that would probably terrify the next Dark Lord.

Juniper had spoken to the goblins and they'd accepted the idea, they didn't like any kind of publicity, knowing it could have good as well as bad points. The newspapers had chucked out the names of the various Death Eaters, including Fudge, and whole pages were dedicated to explaining what they had done, including lists of people involved in some way with the Death Eater's organisation, though what would be done with that information, Juniper didn't know.

"Juniper," Sirius called, and she jumped in surprise when she noticed that her godfather was standing over her with a massive grin across his face. The years had been rough on him, but it was clear her being her, being back in the country, was doing some good for the old marauder.

"Sirius," she grinned and stood up and hugged him. He hugged her back tightly.

"I've missed you, puppy," she heard him whisper into her ear.

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The End.


	5. The Assassin

To those of you who do like my collection here, thanks for enjoying it. For those of you who don't, well I'm sorry that you aren't enjoying it. I also politely suggest that you simply don't bother reading my stories again. Those who enjoy what I've written, please let me know what you think.

Thank you.

Disclaimer - I don't own Harry Potter.

The Assassin.

It turned out sneaking the potion she'd made with Mrs Figg's ingredients into the Dursleys' meal was easier than she had expected; really, the stupid squib should have been a bit more vigilant. All she'd needed to do was make the woman fall asleep, sneak into the squib's potion lab and make it and now all she had to do was pour it into their meal after it was taken out of the oven. When it happened, Bryony Potter knew she would enjoy the show. Even better she knew that she wouldn't be sharing the meal with them, the Dursleys didn't allow her to eat with them, they made sure she only ate the scraps, and just in case they made an exception tonight she had prepared an antidote.

"Hurry up, Girl!" Petunia snapped, clearly stressed and despite her loathing for the woman, Bryony knew the reason had more to do with the fact Marge Dursley was here. Petunia didn't care for Marge, not that Bryony could blame her, and Petunia liked the dog Marge owned even less. The old thing was constantly losing control of its bowels, and it was shitting and pissing everywhere, and Petunia hated the filthy mutt. Bryony was looking forward to tonight. She had been saving the potion for a while now, trying to decide when she should use it on the Dursleys and make her long-awaited escape from this dump. Bryony gave a minute flinch at the sound of Ripper's growing and she looked forward to killing the dog as well, and she just ignored the dog. She had heard dogs could smell ill-intent, but the Dursleys didn't pay attention to Ripper since he barked and growled at her all the time. She wanted the dog dead, and she remembered the bite the filthy little beast had given her.

Making sure the Dursleys weren't watching, Bryony looked icily down at the creature and concentrated her magic on the dog's larynx and gently squeezed it, making the dog choke lightly, but she quickly released the animal. Unfortunately, Aunt Marge heard the animals whimpering and stormed over to him, her fat body wobbling as she moved.

"Ripper! What's wrong with you?" The woman asked, but the dog nuzzled his mistress with sickening sounds. Bryony knew the woman was looking accusingly at her, but Bryony was once again using her magic to produce a compulsion charm to make the fat bitch leave her alone.

After she had served the meal to the Dursleys she'd gone quietly to the Cupboard under the stairs, but the Dursleys didn't lock the door - it would've required one of them to lock the door and turn back and when it came for her to do the washing up whether she wanted to do it or not they'd have to get up and unlock the door. The Dursleys were too lazy to do that.

While she waited for the poison to work in the darkness of her Cupboard, Bryony had time to reflect on her actions while the Dursley's unknowingly poisoned themselves. Bryony was a witch. Born and bred. Despite the Dursley's constant bullying and them telling her she was a freak and that her parents had been a drunk and whore, respectfully, they had no idea that their lies were meaningless now. Her parents, Lily and James Potter, had both been magic. They had fought in a war against a Dark Lord bastard called Voldemort and his followers, the Death Eaters. as they'd tried to fight the classic fight of good vs evil. Bryony had known she was a witch for a good four years now. She could remember how the memories and experiences of her parents had entered her mind.

Her mother, Lily, had been a Curse-Breaker working for the Gringotts' goblins. She had worked out that despite the propaganda spewed out that Muggle-borns, people with magic but were born outside the magical world, weren't allowed in the Ministry of Magic that it was not true. But in the current climate, she had decided to get a job with the goblins. At least with them, you knew where you stood. It was quite pitiful when you thought about it.

But Lily had good reasons for going for that job while James went for a job as an Auror. Lily had a thirst for magical knowledge, and with the war brewing, she would need to confuse and terrify the Death Eaters. After she had joined the Curse-Breakers and came back frequently to her home country she fought the good fight with the Order of the Phoenix, though Bryony had quickly worked out that Lily had quickly regretted the decision to join up, and when Bryony looked through those memories it didn't take a rocket scientist long to work out. The Order was useless and they condemned her for killing the Death Eaters.

They were at war! How else did they expect the war to be fought? But after she'd become pregnant with Bryony, Lily and James had fought and narrowly escaped Lord Voldemort himself. Bryony took a deep breath as she remembered the mental image of the snake-faced Dark Wizard. The pale, slightly scaled skin, the red slit eyes, the flat nose holes….. what in the name of Merlin had Voldemort done to himself?

Bryony remembered the memory of how Lily had cast a spell at the Dark Lord. Voldemort and the Death Eaters had attacked the Potters after they had been 'voluntold' by Albus Dumbledore to patrol Diagon Alley. Lily hadn't been pregnant at the time, and it was a good thing because both Potters had nearly been killed by Voldemort.

Lily had cast a spell on Voldemort to try and determine what kind of rituals the bastard had used to augment his powers and his abilities as well as change his appearance so drastically. Lily had been expecting anything, so she had been disgusted and surprised by what she'd learnt.

No young witch who was Bryony's age should know anything about Horcruxes, but Bryony Potter did. She knew about the magic of the Horcruxes which was taught to Curse-Breakers, who had to deal with them a lot. It was amazing how many people in the ancient world of magic where the laws and rules drawn up over the centuries had not gone into effect at the time had thought splitting their soul was the way to go to make themselves immortal.

Lily had been disgusted and yet delighted that she'd learnt the truth about Voldemort's immortality because she knew exactly how to kill the Dark Wizard. It was a straightforward enough ritual that would drain Voldemort's single Horcrux and also take the magic of the Death Eaters as well. Unfortunately, Lily didn't know where Voldemort's single Horcrux was, and she didn't tell Albus Dumbledore, the leader of the Order of the Phoenix and the so-called leader of the light. Voldemort had only made the one, and both Lily and now Bryony, thanks to her mother's transferred knowledge could understand why; Horcruxes didn't extend life, creating one involved splitting one's magic and soul. It was intensely painful, and it took a long time to recover from the effects of making one, and each time they were made it could also cause magic to either work or not.

After Lily had become pregnant and had her, Dumbledore had told her parents about a prophecy concerning her and Voldemort, and for their own safety, they needed to hide. Lily hadn't liked that any more than James had, but for Bryony's sake, they hid.

And they died. But before she'd died, Lily Potter had transferred her knowledge, memories and experiences to her only child. The spells on her mind were supposed to unlock when Bryony was only five years old and on her birthday. Bryony remembered a splitting headache she had had (which had earned her some slaps from Vernon who didn't like the noise she'd made), but it was worth it. She had always thought the Dursleys were lying to her about her parent's deaths and getting those memories and Lily's knowledge right up before she died had proven that.

Now she knew the truth of the Dursleys. Petunia was just a pathetic little woman, so caught up in her dreams of a future which would seriously never happen in any reality. Vernon was not a strong man, he was a coward trying to be something he wasn't. Marge and Dudley didn't know the truth; Dudley had been with his aunt at the time of her parent's wedding day, and Marge hadn't been invited to Lily and James' wedding, so she had no idea of how Vernon had loudly talked about 'freaks' in such a rude and brazen manner, completely oblivious to the knowledge he was in the midst of a group of magic users and had gotten cursed for his rude words by Lily, who had been upset with her parents insistence that Petunia and Vernon attend her wedding; she might have wanted to build better bridges with her elder sister, but Lily had quickly realised it was not going to happen no matter what. Lily Potter was nothing if not a realist.

It was thanks to her mother's knowledge that Bryony knew Mrs Figg was a squib, and as a squib, she had provided potions to the Order. It was just about the only form of magic she could use. Bryony had looked into the woman's mind after she'd begun experimenting with occlumency and legilimency - she could see the woman's bitterness towards ordinary witches and wizards and knew that the woman didn't give a damn what happened to the young witch she had been ordered to look out for. Mrs Figg didn't know about the abuse, but even if she had Bryony had no idea what she would have done.

It was only because of the fact the woman had unwittingly helped her kill off the Dursleys that Bryony was letting her live.

Suddenly she came out of her thoughts when she heard the sound of choking from the dining room. She smiled maliciously, something no child should ever do, and she clicked her fingers and left the cupboard - she had learnt how to perform wand-less magic after realising she couldn't practice without a wand, and so she had begun experimenting. It had been hard to learn since humans weren't made to perform it, but that didn't mean it was impossible- all she'd needed to do was experiment and then work with ambient magic to power her spells instead of using her own magic to do the work. Magically she reached out and blew up Ripper's heart.

Sauntering into the dining room - Bryony loved what her mother's knowledge and memories had done for her confidence, now she had the power to do whatever she wanted she had the world at her fingertips, and she loved it - she closed her eyes and focused her mind on the poison in the bodies in her relatives, sensing they were dangerously close to dying completely. She couldn't have that until she'd had the chance to make some kind of 'peace' between them.

Walking into the dining room Bryony smirked when she saw her soon to be dead relatives struggling on the ground. "A potion," she said conversationally to Petunia and Vernon to grab their attention and they looked up at her with hate, fear, and shock in their eyes but she didn't care what those three emotions were for, "easy to make for a properly trained witch, and thanks to my mother's transferred knowledge it was easy to make when I had the ingredients."

Smugly she took out a small vial from her pocket. It was full of a purple liquid. "The antidote," she gloated. "There was the possibility you'd have made me sit and eat with you, but if that happened I would have taken it. I wasn't going to risk my life even to kill you."

Vernon choked as he weakly extended his hands towards the vial, and the other Dursleys followed his example. Bryony smirked at them, and she couldn't help but laugh at how pathetic and desperate they were. She unstoppered the small glass tube and she poured the whole lot into her mouth, relishing the sounds of the Dursley's choked protests.

After putting the now empty vial back into her pocket, she looked down at them with a smirk. "You are so pathetic," she told them, "did you really think I would give you the means to recover, so you could beat me up for poisoning you? You should have known better. I don't know whether you believe in reincarnation or not, but here's a tip; stay away from the bad side of a witch, you'll live longer."

She smirked down at them. "I've cast a spell on all of you to slow the poison down, but it won't last long; the four of you will still die even if I slow the poison down long enough for you to live another day. I just wanted to say a few words to you. I know the truth, you probably guessed that already, but my mother and father were not drunks, my mother was not a prostitute. You stupid muggles; that means you are not magical, by the way, did you really think I wouldn't learn the truth about their murders? They died to protect me, and how were they rewarded? I was sent to you, where you would plan to try and stop me becoming a witch. Here's a newsflash you filthy muggle bitch," she hissed at Petunia, who looked back at her niece with terror in her pale eyes, "I would have always been one. I am a witch. I am proud to be better than you, better than every single one of you filthy animals living in this stupid street. Better than that stupid squib down the road. Mrs Figg may have had the potion ingredients I've used to murder you, but even she is beneath a true witch."

"I looked into your mind, Aunt Petunia," Bryony went on, her cold green eyes piercing Petunia's dying ones. "I know about the plan you had cooked up; blissfully different from your thug of a husband's plan, which was to beat me until my body could take no more. You had planned to keep me so downtrodden, so hopeless, and when it came to it, you'd kick me out. No education. No prospects. Nothing. In your mind, I would become what you claimed my mum to be; a prostitute. Forced to take drugs, completely alone, to die eventually. At last, you would have the so-called revenge against my mother. The fact you were potentially harming an innocent girl meant absolutely nothing to you, you disgusting sub-human bitch!"

Bryony walked away, moving about in a circle to control her temper before she returned to the Dursleys. They were still coughing and choking, desperately trying to speak.

"I had wondered for a long time how I could kill all of you, Marge was a bonus, but you haven't noticed Ripper is already dead. I blew up his heart only a moment before I stepped into the room, but he's unimportant. My mother transferred her knowledge and memories to me, so I have all the knowledge of the curses she learnt from the ancient tombs she was hired to get into. You could've said she was an archaeologist or something, but no, you had to lie. How does it feel to know your sister was better than you? My mother learnt so many glorious curses from those tombs, and she even used one or two of them against the bastards who she was fighting in the war. I bet if you knew what she had done, you would have thought twice about treating her like shit. One of those curses anatomically inverted the victim, the body was splayed open, but the true beauty of it was that it could keep the body alive for a little while longer while under the most terrible pain."

"Picture it, a spell that rips your open wide open, blood, intestines, and organs dropping to the ground, but you are still alive and screaming through it. I had been tempted to use it on all four of you and hear your screams while you begged me to put you out of my misery, but I knew I wanted to get out and kill you with something untraceable. Tomorrow the police will arrive, they will find your corpses, and they will find the cupboard with its bloodstains. I don't know what they will think, but tomorrow the spells and the wards on this place will be collapsed. Goodbye Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, Aunt Marge. Oh, poor Dudley," Bryony said with mock sympathy that even the thickset boy could tell was fake. "All this could have been avoided if you hadn't followed your parent's example. Goodbye."

She clicked her fingers and the potion was no longer halted in their systems. The Dursleys died as she walked a little distance away so she could watch them die at a distance.

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10 years later.

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Bryony focused on dancing in front of the crowd. She had received a job to assassinate a businessman who liked to frequent this strip club from time to time. She had done her research on him. He liked coming here to unwind and to encounter girls older than Bryony herself was.

Getting into the club wasn't difficult and a few recon visits here to keep an eye on him was just a simple. Bryony placed some notice-me-not charms over herself and she even sat down next to him without the muggle noticing her presence. She noticed that he had a few favourites in the club, and a bit more checking and she found out that he sometimes had private dances.

Great. She had a way in. At the townhouse she'd seen in her mother's memories, the one her parents had lived in before Dumbledore persuaded them to hide that cottage in Godric's Hollow, she practised the glamour charms to disguise herself as one of the dancers.

Bryony had become an assassin after leaving the Dursleys. From her townhouse, she had gone to Gringotts and became emancipated and in the muggle world, she had 'pretended' to be guardian to herself. She hadn't planned on becoming an assassin, someone who murdered for profit. Not caring if they had a family, a life. Murdering the Dursleys had….thrilled her and she found while she liked animals and magic, she loved killing people as well, and she appreciated the irony when she arrived at Hogwarts and exposed to Dumbledore bullshit. The old wizard believed she was the paragon of light. She had no intention of changing his mind just like she had decided not to bother killing him. She didn't see the need. He wasn't malicious in his dealing with her. But his desire to poke his nose into her life sometimes got to her, to say nothing of his obsession with finding out where she lived. Underneath the glamour charms she'd cast over herself, Bryony grinned at the muggle businessman - she had been promised a very handsome fee for his death, and she had every intention of collecting it, and she mentally cast a few spells on him to make him ask her for a private dance. She got her wish when one of the bouncers told her he wanted her for a private dance.

When she got into the room, she danced again, slowly and seductively, thankful for the ballerina lessons 'her mother' (her) had made her take part in to learn how to be graceful and elegant. As she danced, she kept a smile on her face as she swayed closer to him, wandlessly compelling him to sit still and embrace her slim body when pressed herself against him. She pressed her lips against him, letting the poison infused into the lipstick press into his own lips, and she deepened the kiss to get as much of the poison into him as possible while grinding her body against him.

Bryony and the muggle kissed for a good five minutes before she let him go, and she pulled away with a smile before slipping her wand out at him. She quickly cast the imperious curse on him, and she slipped out a small vial hidden in her bra. She handed it to him. "Open it and swallow," she instructed him.

The businessman did as he was told. Bryony took the vial back from him. "Give me my pay for tonight," she said.

Opening his wallet, the businessman handed her some cash.

Bryony hid it in the wand holster and levelled her wand at him. "I'm sorry about this, really," she confessed, "but a gal has gotta make a living."

She spent the next twelve minutes wiping the muggle's memory of her - it wasn't really needed, but it was possible he would recover enough of himself during the pain when the binary poison which was now coursing through his system did its work. If that happened, he could write down something that told the police where to look for his murderer; sure the police wouldn't believe anyone about magic, but some would, either relatives or parents who had Muggle-borns.

When she was finished she kept him under mind control. "Stay here for a minute after I've gone, then pay the club and get in your car, and head for the nearest hospital. You will suffer pains in about half an hour, and you believe you are having a heart attack and you want to get to the hospital before it hits you."

Once she was finished, Bryony left the room and headed for the dressing room. She put up some charms on the room to stop others coming in here on impulse before taking down the disillusionment and notice-me-not-charms on the muggle stripper whose form she had taken. Quickly donning her own clothes, Bryony waved her wand over the woman and wiped her memories and implanted fresh ones so she would confirm she had danced and kissed the muggle though it was doubtful the muggle police would work out he'd died from poisoning, but it was good to have contingencies.

Casting another spell over herself, Bryony left the club and headed home.

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When she arrived home, Bryony stroked her cats and put some food down for them - she had acquired a liking for cats thanks to Mrs Figg; she might have thought the old squib was being a bit stupid constantly showing those albums, but cats had a beauty that was hard to match - before she started on her own meal.

The death of the businessman would be in the newspaper in the morning, he was that well known and she should receive her payment. She had a reputation of using unknown and untraceable poisons, though she did vary her routine from time to time; one of her victims was mentally compelled to go crazy and she staged a hanging. As she heated up the lasagne she had made earlier, Bryony prepared from green beans and some sweetcorn.

When she was finished, she headed for the living room and turned on the television and turned to the news. The businessman's death was already reported, he had died just outside the hospital apparently crying out in pain while wheezing. If that didn't make her client pay up, she didn't know what wouldn't.

Bryony looked around her townhouse as the news went on and reported on more mundane subjects; there was news about the weather, it would be raining in a couple of days, and there was a report of a blunder in the US government, but nothing that really interested her that much. But one thing always caught her eye whenever she looked at it.

A black covered diary.

The thing had once held the Horcrux she had used to begin and complete the ritual she had used to kill Lord Voldemort…..

Something was definitely wrong with the Weasley girl, she thought to herself as she watched the girl look skittish. True, the attacks going on at the school was terrifying everyone, and Bryony was doing her level best to ignore it with the same level of apathy as she used to ignore Lockhart's presence at the school.

Bryony didn't think much of the Weasley family. She went out of her way to ignore them, using her mother's memories of Molly Weasley's pushiness to remind her the woman was not someone she wanted in her personal space.

She headed over to the girl, hoping that the little redhead would open up with her nearby - she had heard that Ginny Weasley was a fangirl of hers, and while Bryony went out of her way to gently tell her fans she was no hero and she had not done anything special, they refused to listen, but maybe a bit of kindness would make the girl open up.

Ginny had her head bowed in a black book that seemed very old and she had her back to Bryony, and so she didn't notice it when the older girl sidled up to her.

"Hi, it's Ginny right?" Bryony asked in as friendly a tone as possible, but the little redhead suddenly swung around, her eyes red. Before the redhead could whip her wand out, Bryony clicked her fingers quickly, and stunned the girl with the redhead's own magic, recognising the signs of magical possession, and by the time the girl was on the ground Bryony had snatched up the diary. She scanned it with her magic and was instantly amazed by the amount of power hidden inside it.

Intrigued, Bryony cast a spell on the book with her wand. The result made her look at the diary hungrily. "I've got you," she whispered, restraining the urge to leap in delight, but remembering the girl on the ground at her feet Bryony flicked her wand and levitated the girl towards the hospital wing.

"Madam Pomfrey," she called out, and the Hogwarts nurse appeared to find out what was going on, and when she saw the levitated girl she instantly went into action.

"What happened?" She asked.

Telling the truth about something she had done was usually not something Bryony Potter did, but this was going to have to be an exception. "I stunned her when I saw she was possessed and brought her here," she said, "but you had better tell Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore that Ginny Weasley had a Horcrux I think belongs to Lord Voldemort."

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Dumbledore's face was grave with shock, horror and disbelief. He had brought in Professor McGonagall but also Professors Snape, Sprout, and Flitwick to the hospital wing.

"Explain how you know about Horcruxes, Miss Potter?" He asked.

"My mother was a Curse-Breaker. She knew about the Horcruxes," Bryony replied.

"Your mother has been dead for 11 years, Miss Potter."

"Thank you for reminding me," Bryony said sarcastically before she decided to come clean. "When I was five years old, I suffered from a terrible headache, and it wasn't until later memories and experiences that weren't my own entered my mind. I knew more about my mother at that point because I had her memories. Lily Potter knew she was about to die that night, so she transferred her memories to me. I knew things about her that some people don't know, and some things people do know," Bryony's eyes flicked over to a pale Professor Snape and then her gaze returned to Dumbledore, using her occlumency barriers to keep her secrets hidden.

"Curse-Breakers deal with Horcruxes nearly every day," Bryony said, "they're found in tombs that are opened up."

Professor Sprout looked between one horrified teacher to the next. "What are these Horcruxes, is no-one going to tell me?"

Bryony sighed. "Horcruxes are pieces of the soul, Professor Sprout," she explained, "created by people who believed splitting the soul would render them immortal but in fact, they were only making themselves live another few decades or slicing their lifespans. It doesn't help that when you split your soul, it leaves you more vulnerable than stronger."

The Herbology teacher's dirty face paled at the thought of someone going that far just to live forever. Bryony was not in the mood for a debate or talk, this was not the time. "We need to drain the Horcrux, that way we can finally end the threat of Lord Voldemort," Bryony went on.

Snape hissed at the mention of the evil wizard, and the other teachers barring the Headmaster flinched at the mention of the name. The mention of Voldemort had not helped Snape's mood. "How will that defeat the Dark Lord, Potter?" he asked snidely.

Bryony lifted an eyebrow. She had known for a long time what Severus Snape had done in the past, and she knew that her mother had known he was a Death Eater. That knowledge had already made it plain to her she had to tread carefully here. Dumbledore wouldn't agree to the plan to deal with the threat of Voldemort if he knew his pet Death eater suffered. Bryony knew only too well what would be happening to the Death Eaters.

"When the ritual is begun, the Horcrux will be drained and it will attract any other soul piece to it, and that includes the part of the soul that Voldemort is using right now," Bryony said after a moment's careful thought. "Please, Headmaster, I don't want to deal with Voldemort ever again. I know the ritual and I've got the materials in my trunk. We can deal with it pretty soon."

Dumbledore, meanwhile, was looking at Bryony as though he had never seen her before in his life. The other teachers didn't notice it but Bryony did notice Dumbledore's attention on her infamous lightning bolt shaped scar, but why was he so interested in it? Unless-? No, she thought to herself, keeping her outrage hidden behind her occlumency barriers.

Just as the realisation was dawning in her mind, Dumbledore nodded, at last, his face incredibly weary. Bryony wondered what was making him weary; the years as they went past him, or the thought of fighting against Lord Voldemort again.

"I was dreading the pain that Lord Voldemort would bring with him when he returned," Dumbledore said, at last, his voice incredibly grim while some of the teachers, who clearly hadn't realised Voldemort was still out there only just clinging to life by the merest threads, flinched with horror and fear at the dreaded name, "but if there is a way to stop him now, then so be it."

Dumbledore speared Bryony with a look. "I know you have just said you have the materials in your trunk, Bryony, but please feel free to use the resources of the school."

"Before I begin," Bryony replied, "I'd like all of you to keep this between ourselves. I don't want the magical world to know."

"You don't want the magical world to give you much more fame, Potter?" Snape sneered at the girl ignored him.

"I just want a quiet time at Hogwarts," Bryony went on. "I don't need my remaining years worrying about running into fans," the way she said that last word was full of disgust.

Dumbledore nodded. "I understand why you would want that, Bryony. I didn't expect to be lauded as a hero and then expected to solve all the problems in the world only to be turned on when things went wrong. I never expected or wanted the same thing to happen to anybody else, never mind a child."

Bryony looked at the headmaster with a sudden empathy while she wondered if he was telling her the truth…

Back in the present day, Bryony remembered how things had gone from there. She hadn't known that when she drained the Horcrux that Snape and the other Death Eaters would also collapse as their own magic was removed from their bodies, and Dumbledore had not liked that, but then they'd worked out that Voldemort, who had only made two Horcruxes, the one in the diary and one found in Bryony's scar, had realised or guessed that making Horcruxes was not the way to becoming immortal, so he had marked his followers and relied on that same mark to draw some of the magic from the Death Eaters.

Bryony felt little sympathy from them, and while Dumbledore had been angry that the Death Eaters had to die, he later admitted that it was probably for the best since sacrifices had to be made, but at that point, she had wondered if that had meant sacrificing HER life. A side effect of the Horcrux being drained apart from the chaos the Ministry had to endure when all the Death Eaters were dying or already dead, was the number of young girls and boys found in many of their homes, many of whom had been raped and sexually tortured over a long period of time, but that was nothing compared to the return of Peter Pettigrew.

Thinking of Peter made her mind turn over to Sirius Black. She had known her godfather was innocent, but there was no way she could have helped the older man get out of Hogwarts unless she found Pettigrew, and there was no way she could have found one rat in a trillion. But she didn't need to - Peter Pettigrew had apparently been found in the Gryffindor dormitory, as the pet of Ron Weasley. She hadn't even known the annoying toe rag even HAD a rat.

The Ministry had been publicly embarrassed by the revelation Peter Pettigrew was alive which meant they'd locked up an innocent man, though the Minister had needed a bit more persuasion that Sirius was innocent. Apparently, Fudge had managed to get into power by arresting Sirius and using the betrayer of the Potters as a means to gain enough political leverage to become Minister. Bryony didn't like the thought of someone using her or anything related to her for their own ends.

In the end it was academic - Fudge had no choice but to declare Sirius innocent, unfortunately, because of her emancipation he couldn't claim guardianship over her but she'd agreed for him to move in with her. Sirius had been upset that she had emancipated herself but he'd accepted that she had only done it to become independent.

Bryony only just left out the fact she had murdered her relatives even if she considered the Dursleys only just above the level of cockroaches on the evolutionary ladder.

The End.


	6. The Judge of the Purge

My thanks to Redbayly for letting me use the idea behind 'The Purge' for this short story.

"The Judge of the Purge."

I have wanted to commit murder for a long time, but it wasn't until I was fifteen and in my fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry I decided to have a purge after reading a history book during the summer after her third year and learnt of the purges in Stalin's's Russia and Mao's China.

That's not a confession, but a matter of fact. Death has been something of a companion of mine throughout the years, since that night on Halloween when my parents were murdered by Lord Voldemort, your grandparents if this is one of my own children. When I was young, I saw a fly sharing the same space in my cupboard under the stairs at Number 4 Privet Drive. The buzzing annoyed me, so I slapped my hand against it. It flew away, taunting me with its buzzing as it flew around, and it annoyed me. I time my next slap, and I killed it.

Isn't that the most vivid image of death, a fly that once flew, now stopped in its tracks, smashed in against the wall?

But the death of the fly thrilled me. I began experimenting with killing insects, spiders - they were just hanging around, hah! Get it? Oh well, but it was not long before I decided I wanted to see people die.

I wanted to commit murder. I began collecting old newspaper articles of people who were dead, murdered by poisons or knife wounds. By the age of 9, I had already fantasised of a hundred glorious and painful ways for the Dursleys to die when I discovered the Bible. Oh, I am not religious - I don't put stock in religion, I don't believe in god, any god, because I'll tell you one thing; if I were a god and my creations instigated things like jihads, inquisitions, holy wars, or commandments, I'd smash them and start again.

No, I'm talking about Agatha Christie's And then there were None. The Dursleys don't like reading, and there isn't a single book in the house. I managed to take the book out of the library and I read it every single moment I had spare. The only reason I picked it up off the shelves was the synopsis that spoke of a killer. Well, that and when I read the epilogue and Judge Wargrave's confession which he'd put into a bottle.

And then there were None has dozens of titles but was changed to its current incarnation because of political correctness, the reasons aren't important to me since I don't care, but the book had a poetry to it that modern murders lack. More than that, Wargrave only went after people whom he knew were guilty.

When I arrived at Hogwarts, I found dozens of people whom I wanted to murder. But it wasn't until Third year I decided to plan. I spent two years plotting, carrying out research and finding names for my list. It wasn't until my fifth year when Lord Voldemort was in hiding that I put my plan into action. I got my hands on a goblin recording crystal and I altered my voice and spoke into it. Thanks to Dobby and Winky, two of the greatest House-elves who bonded to me, I was able to smuggle Wizarding wirelesses everywhere in the magical world. The idea wasn't just to capture Agatha Christie's environment, but to also spread the terror of the purge with the first murders. I will tell you about what else I had been doing after I finish this part of my story, well confession.

Halfway through dinner, my magically enhanced and altered voice spoke throughout the magical world.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN - SILENCE PLEASE. SOME OF YOU HAVE BEEN CHARGED WITH THE FOLLOWING INDICTMENTS. THE LIST IS TOO LONG TO BE GIVEN NOW, BUT FOR THE TIME BEING THIS LIST WILL DO.

DRACO MALFOY - THAT YOU DID MURDER A FOUR YOU MUGGLE GIRL, SAMANTHA STEVENS DURING THE SUMMER BEFORE YOUR SECOND YEAR."

"MAFALDA HOPKIRK - THAT YOU DID PASS INFORMATION ONTO THE DEATH EATERS, AND ARE SUBSEQUENTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF 20 FAMILIES, AND THE SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF MUGGLE-BORN CHILDREN."

LUCIUS MALFOY - THAT YOU DID MURDER, TORTURE AND RAPE INNOCENTS UNDER THE ORDERS OF LORD VOLDEMORT, BUT DURING THE SUMMER THREE YEARS AGO, YOU PERSONALLY MURDERED A PUREBLOOD WITCH BY THE NAME OF PAULA CACKLE.

BELLATRIX LESTRANGE - THAT YOU DID TORTURE FRANK AND ALICE LONGBOTTOM, RENDERING THEM INSANE."

"DOLORES UMBRIDGE - THAT YOU DID BEGIN A BROTHEL IN KNOCKTURN ALLEY FOR MUGGLE-BORN CHILDREN, THAT YOU HAVE BEEN WORKING WITH MAFALDA HOPKIRK INTO SUPPLYING THE CHILDREN FOR YOUR CLIENT'S DISGUSTING FETISHES."

"SEVERUS SNAPE - THAT YOU DID MURDER EDGAR BONES, AND YOU JOINED THE DEATH EATER SQUAD THAT ORPHANED HOGWARTS STUDENT SUSAN AMELIA BONES.

"HOW DO YOU PLEAD?"

I remember the uproar and the outrage in the hall - the accused, Malfoy, Snape and Umbridge instantly denied everything that they were accused of while Dumbledore tried to calm the crowd down, but it was impossible when Susan Bones shouted at Snape.

"You murdered my family, you greasy bastard!"

Susan was a brave girl, she was shy but she was brave, and she was looking at Snape with loathing. Dumbledore punished her, but I had known from the moment my magically enhanced and altered voice echoed around the hall, the ones on the list who were at Hogwarts with me were guilty. It was there in their expressions - Snape may have practised the mind arts, but even he could express surprise, especially for something like THAT!

Umbridge's guilt was evident, but she wasn't my target for tonight.

I had two targets to prove to the magical world I wasn't joking. That night, Draco Malfoy died of poisoning. He was alright one minute and then he collapsed and died as the poison he'd eaten with his meal thanks to Dobby magically pouring a poison into his drink.

Amelia Bones stormed into the Great Hall, Cornelius Fudge right behind her with a number of Aurors. I had heard of the woman, and in fact, she had personally sent a letter to me as a formality but also to inquire about my wellbeing when the Dursleys were kissed by Dementors. I still wasn't sure why Umbridge sent them, oh I knew she had done it, but I don't plan on proving it. Well, not much.

The Dursleys had been kissed along Dudley and his gang, but I'd left beforehand. I hadn't made any attempt to save my relatives or Dudley's gang, and I'd just left. Oh, the things I had learnt.

"Dumbledore, we're here to take Severus Snape and Dolores Umbridge into custody,-" Bones began without preamble, not even trying to be civil while glaring at Snape with total disgust while the Aurors moved to intercept him. I was watching with a hidden smile. I didn't care if Snape tried to escape, but if he did that would prove his guilt.

Dumbledore instantly tried to defend his potions master. Umbridge could fend for herself. I almost laughed at the hidden message. "My dear Amelia, I assure you that Severus is repentant."

"Repentant!" Susan Bones shouted. "That thing is responsible for murdering my uncle and my parents! You have him as a teacher here! Have you no shame?"

"That's enough, Miss Bones-!" McGonagall started, but Amelia Bones didn't waste any time, "No, it isn't. The fact you don't seem to care about the fact one of your 'colleagues' murdered family members of both one of your students and myself, the head of the DMLE says a great deal about you, Professor. Speaking of the dead, Mafalda Hopkirk was found only ten minutes before we arrived, Albus! She had a hook through her neck! Whoever is behind this moves quickly."

I definitely hid a smirk - whoever would have imagined a House-elf being good at hanging someone and snapping their neck like a pencil? In fact, who would ever imagine a House-elf to be so vicious!?

Fudge stepped in. "Dumbledore, Dolores needs to be protected at the school, and frankly you have never proven yourself capable of protecting anyone in the castle. That is why Dolores will not be teaching."

I shook my head when I heard that, though subtly, knowing that this wouldn't stop me.

Amelia Bones agreed with me, though for different reasons. "Oh, she will not be teaching here," her voice rang out, sounding so dangerous in her promise as she speared Fudge with a look that had the minister squirm. "She will be under investigation for the accusations levelled against her, and you will not be interfering in those investigations, Minister."

"N-now, see here, Amelia-!"

"No. You are not going to interfere, even are you are not above the law, and the charges against Severus Snape are clear. If he is guilty, he will be punished, but if not…. he will be allowed to complain."

Snape just couldn't keep his mouth shut, making me wonder if he even knew how he was looking to the everybody else, even Dumbledore looked stricken. "Oh, I shall be making a complaint, and you will regret this Bones-!"

"That is Amelia Bones, Director of the DMLE to you!" Bones interrupted

I liked this woman.

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Surprise, surprise, surprise - Snape and Umbridge were definitely found guilty. Dumbledore tried to interfere but, because of Fudge's unwitting help in getting Dumbledore kicked out of his multiple roles in the magical government, he failed. Using Winky's help, I managed to get into the cells of Dolores Umbridge and Severus Snape.

Umbridge was the first to die. Winky apparated me into the room, a knife in my hand.

The woman was busy looking down at her hands and muttering to herself to notice I was there, but I broke the silence.

"Hello, Professor," I said.

Umbridge looked up at me in shock, jumping at the sound of my voice. "Y-you?" she gaped. "What are you doing here, Potter?"

I wasn't surprised she recognised me, my face has been in the newspaper often enough for anyone to point me out in a street. I didn't say a word as I plunged the knife into her neck, slashing it and making the blood spurt out before plunging it into her stomach.

"Winky," I called and the House-elf took me to Snape's cell.

The greasy-haired potions master was pacing up and down the cell, but unlike Umbridge he noticed my presence at once.

"Potter!" He barked. "How did you get in here?'

In response I took the gun I had in my pocket and shot him twice, one in the kneecaps and the other in his shoulder, making him scream and collapse to the ground. While he was screaming, I took out the bottle of veritaserum I'd stolen from the potion master's stores and poured some down his throat and forcibly closed his mouth. Once the potion had taken hold, I began asking him questions. A few minutes later he was panting while I was seething and clutching the gun in my hand furiously.

"Y'know what when I found out my parents were betrayed to your master, I wanted nothing more than to kill him, but now I know the truth; you told Voldemort about the prophecy - I've known about it for ages now since I got away. But his attacks on my parents made my mum, a trained Unspeakable, take a good look at Voldemort. I know how to kill him! But you know, I was planning on using you to pass it on. She developed on the method that was already there, and she would have unleashed it….. except she was murdered, all because of you, you selfish, arrogant bastard wanted to turn her into a sex toy! Did you think He would have let that happen? Justice will be served. Goodbye," I said to him and levelled the gun and shot him in the head at point-blank range.

After I dealt with Snape and Umbridge, I had to concentrate on the other problems. I decided not to go out of my way to find the Death Eaters and kill them, but if I did meet one then I would kill them. At that point I was too busy bringing down the network Hopkirk and Umbridge had set up, and they had quite a few kidnappers out there who snatched girls and women off the streets, and they had even kidnapped little kids from their homes after killing the families to confuse the muggle police. These kids were usually muggle-borns and they were so badly abused they were left little more than shells of their former selves.

For months I tracked down and brought to justice those who dared to break the law. The DMLE might have had them under observation or even suspected them at some point, but their lack of action proved to me they were fundamentally useless. I was more than happy to clean up shop for them, whether they wanted my help or not. Unfortunately, because this was my OWL year, I had to be conservative with how many nights I went out and murdered someone because I decided to use my House-elves to bring them to me, by dropping them off in one of the dungeons.

Why are Death Eaters and other scum so unimaginative with their threats? I had no idea why they thought I would be so scared when no-one even knew where they were.

One of my favourite ways to torture was the blowtorch - I won't bore you with how and where I got my hands on a few of them - and I used them to scorch the skin of several of my guilty victims and cutting them up with a chainsaw I'd smuggled into my trunk. The death toll rose as I had my House Elves bring the guilty to me. I didn't fuck around. I knew that even if the DMLE investigated the allegations and the brutal way I slaughtered the brothel owners and Merlin knew who else, Fudge would get in the way. I had Winky spy on the Minister night and day in case he was hiding any skeletons in his closet; when I sent Winky I was hoping that Fudge was doing something stupid, but even I was surprised when the fool was a frequent visitor to a brothel which sold muggleborn women and kids.

He was easy to get hold of. I had Winky take a camera with her and had photos of him having sex with small children and how he was enjoying their pain, and I had them sent to the DMLE, the ICW, to the Daily Prophet. Fudge was finished and he was sent to prison for his crimes. Not good enough. I smuggled poison into the prison he was in, and it killed him. Some people would probably have been surprised by Fudge's crime, but there were other crimes the fucking idiot was behind and had a part of.

Fudge was a supporter of Voldemort, though he wasn't marked as Death Eater. No, he wasn't interested in murdering people. He didn't have the intelligence or the will to do something like that to anybody, but he did believe pureblood ways were better. The former Minister of Magic had known Voldemort was still alive even longer than when I confirmed he had returned, and Lucius Malfoy encouraged him to cut the funding for the DMLE.

Fudge confessed to the ICW what he had been doing. The papers reported how the ICW was trying to find ways of dealing with Voldemort, and they were in a better protection - the magical law enforcement agencies around the planet were out of Fudge's jurisdiction so they could effortlessly send Aurors to deal with Voldemort and the Death Eaters.

I remember I was in two minds about that. I thought it was a good thing that the ICW was taking Voldemort seriously, and why wouldn't they? If it were up to Voldemort, the magical world would be exposed to the entire world, and the ICW cared more about the Statute of Secrecy than they did about a Dark Lord with delusions of grandeur. One of the downsides to the influx of new Aurors meant there would be a bigger chance of one of them finding out who was behind the murders going on in this country.

I wasn't sure what the influx of new Aurors in this country would do - I didn't know if the chaos going on would be enough for me continue my work or not, but I had to try even if their presence made citizens more vigilant. The Aurors arrived in the country and instantly began arresting and charging people involved in the Death Eater organisation, but they were no closer to dealing with Voldemort.

Strangely Dumbledore didn't seem happy by the turn of events going on in this country, and I couldn't muster the energy to care what was going on in the man's mind. I went on with my mission - deciding I had enough of the Death Eaters, I upped the game, and I began bringing them into the castle before the Aurors could deal with them.

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But it wasn't all fun and games.

OWL year was still on, and then the ICW came to speak to me. Oh, they didn't come to me en-masse and drag me out of the school, and Dumbledore wasn't happy with the meeting since he couldn't control it. For the first time in my life, I saw that everything everyone said about Dumbledore being a respected statesman in the ICW was a lie.

Dumbledore was standing in the corner of the room as if to intimidate me.

"Now, Miss Potter," one of the representatives said in a soft African accent, a man whose skin was as dark and as smooth as molasses, with a kind smile on his face but I didn't trust him; I'd had plenty of bad experiences with politicians, but I decided to give the ICW a chance for now. "If you could please tell us more about what happened when Lord Voldemort returned, we would appreciate it."

I raised an eyebrow. "I thought you already knew the details. You have Fudge's testimony," I said.

"We do, but unfortunately several details have been left out."

"Like what?"

Dumbledore stepped forwards breezily. "I believe everything has been said," he said arrogantly, "you don't need to say anything, Ivy."

I ignored him and began speaking, grinding my teeth every time Dumbledore tried poking his nose into everything, and just kept going. The ICW representatives listened to everything I said, one or two of them even reminded Dumbledore whenever the old wizard interrupted me to butt out. When they finally left, Dumbledore took me aside.

"You should have listened to me, Ivy," he scolded me, and then he went on about some crap about keeping things secret. I didn't understand the logic behind the argument, and when he was finished I walked away. But I threw something back at him. "Sometimes keeping too many secrets can cause more pain and confusion, don't you understand that Professor?"

A day after that confrontation the ICW ordered their Aurors into Britain, and they began increasing their efforts to dealing with the Death Eaters. But I had one of them in my 'custody.'

I had been torturing him for days. He had had his body dosed up with truth serum, taking all information from him. When I was finished, I pressed my wand to his Dark Mark and said the spell my mother had come up with to infect them all. Well, I won't bother with describing how long it took for the Death Eaters to be killed. Well, not killed but it took a long time for their magic to be bled out of them. One by one they lost their magic and they began dropping like flies.

I read the news and I've kept the newspaper articles preserved in case any of my children see what I did to Voldemort and his forces. Some of the Death Eaters became so weak they surrendered themselves to St. Mungo's, not caring whether or not they were arrested or killed by whoever they thought was behind the plague. In their weakness, they cried out confessions of who they had been murdering and torturing, all their crimes. They even labelled other people as unmarked supporters. I have no idea why they did all of that, maybe they thought the ICW would come up with a way to save them.

It didn't work. Their magic was still being lost.

Finally, the ICW got into Malfoy Manor. Dumbledore went with them. I sent Winky along to spy on the old wizard and the entourage, and they found Voldemort, or rather what was left of the Dark Lord. Just a small pile of white ash, a puddle of my blood and a hand amid a pile of black robes and a long black wand. His wand.

Voldemort was finally dead.

Dumbledore summoned me to his office. He asked McGonagall to escort me there but wouldn't tell the teacher why, not that I expected her to know. But Winky already knew - the House-elf had smuggled a piece of paper into my pocket. I read it while McGonagall was taking me up to the office. Contrary to what some might believe House elves, despite their broken English, are good at writing.

The message read; "Professor Whiskers wants to see you in his office to learns what happens to the Dark Lord. Winky doesn't know why Mistress."

I read the last few words sometimes, and I do my best to reassure Winky it wasn't her fault. But the little elf still shouldered some pain about failing Barty Crouch Senior during the Quidditch World Cup and believed any failure now was unforgivable. Poor Winky - sometimes I wish the bastard were still alive so I could teach him humility.

But back to Dumbledore….. there were three possibilities behind this meeting and I didn't know which one it would be for the meeting. Firstly, Dumbledore might be waiting to tell me Voldemort was dead, and the Dark bastard would finally leave me alone to get on with my life in peace. Secondly, Dumbledore might be waiting to tell me Voldemort was dead but he would ask me if I had anything to do with it. Thirdly, Dumbledore could be up there to tell me Voldemort was dead but had people there to arrest me if I let on I was behind the purge. Fourthly, the ICW might be there to tell me I was under arrest for murder.

When I arrived there Dumbledore was in the room alone, so options three and four were out. It was either one or two. I sat down without a word. Dumbledore didn't really greet me, he just stared at me as I sat down. Finally, Dumbledore told McGonagall to leave and then I was left alone with the old manipulator.

"A long time ago, you asked me why Voldemort was after you. It was a prophecy, it had been told by Sybil Trelawney and it said you would be marked by Voldemort so then you would have the power to defeat Voldemort," Dumbledore said at last to break the long silence - I was no longer falling for the old man's games. I knew he used long silences to keep people on the edge so then they would confess to anything.

No more.

I am a judge. I don't bow to that kind of thing.

"Why are you telling me this now? You've had years, and in each year I was pushed over the edge - last year was the worst; I was used as fucking bait by you so you could find out who had put my name into the goblet, but you didn't take any more action, did you? Oh sure, I know full well that would have alerted Crouch Junior that you were on to his game, but you could have done a lot more; those stupid badges, all those newspaper articles, your lack of help, the way you got those teachers in your faculty to stand back and let me be bullied, the way you allow all students from the muggle world to be smacked down while ignoring it and then punish those who fight back. Why are you telling me this now, Professor?" I asked, finishing off the rant with a repeat of my original question.

Dumbledore sighed. "I didn't want to let the students and the newspapers hurt you, Ivy," he said, not knowing I was thinking "fucking liar" in my head.

"I had to make sure Crouch didn't get too suspicious."

"Suspicious of what? You doing your job as a Headmaster, which is protecting the students and not allowing them to go up against Dragons?! Dragons. I almost got killed, all that time no-one in your staff helped. In fact, I got more help from a Death Eater who only wanted me to be used a blood donor. Professor, why am I here? What do you want?"

Dumbledore sighed again, heavier this time. "Ivy, the prophecy between you and Voldemort….. is defunct. The Dark Lord is dead."

I laughed. "Best news I've heard all day. How did the bastard die?"

Dumbledore speared me with a look. "Why don't you tell me? Because I believe that you know more about his end than I do-,"

"Do I? Tell something Professor, if I were behind it what else do you think I'm behind, like the purge."

To the readers of my confession and my story, you'd probably think it was stupid of me to even link the purge to Voldemort's death. But I had to throw him off even if I gave the idea I was behind it.

Dumbledore stiffened noticeably at the mention of the purge. "Why would you say that?" He demanded. "What do you know about the purge, Ivy?"

"Apart from what is in the newspapers, nothing," I said, pushing crafted memories into the forefront of my mind in case Dumbledore carried out a mind probe. "Well, apart from the fact the purge is getting rid of all the bastards out there you and others like you have simply ignored while they felt free to torture, rape and murder."

"Ivy-,"

"No!" I raised my voice firmly to shut him up. "No, its time for you to wake up."

"I beg your pardon?!"

"You heard," I snapped. "Do you remember how Susan Bones reacted when it was revealed to the entire hall what Snape had done to her family? She was furious! I don't blame her; I'd have been furious myself if you had employed Voldemort himself to teach at the school; its a rhetorical argument, not a literal one. You can't keep believing everyone can just forgive and forget. It's one thing to forgive your childhood friend if they miss a wedding or something like that, but what the Death Eaters and Voldemort did, what Fudge, Umbridge, and Hopkirk did to so many simply because they believed being a wizard gave them that power is unforgivable."

Dumbledore grew angry as I poked at his philosophy. He regained control with a visible effort, but I knew he was still angry. "Granted, what many did was irredeemable, but that doesn't excuse the fact that the Death Eaters could have been rehabilitated."

Sometimes I wish I had had the knowledge my mother gleaned from what Voldemort had done to himself to let everyone know the Death Eater's deaths were necessary. But I didn't dare; even if some Dark Lord wannabes researched Horcruxes and learnt how to make one but were repulsed by the idea, the idea of marking a few hundred people and sucking their magic up like a greedy child slurping up a milkshake through a straw would be more hopeful sounding, the risk some Dark Lord might try it needed to be suppressed. I didn't care how the ICW and the Ministry and the press dressed it up, as long as I had nothing to do with it, fine.

I didn't care.

I also won't bother boring you to death about what went on with Dumbledore in the office - Dumbledore kept preaching the same things over and over again, and I didn't doubt he was wondering if I had had something to do with the murders after all. Eventually, he let me go and I went back to my studies. I decided to stop the purge - it had done more than enough, I felt, and so many on the Death List were dead already. I sent it to the DMLE so the foreign Aurors could deal with them.

My next two years at Hogwarts were uneventful. I graduated top of the class at the school, much to the ire of Hermione Granger, and I went on to become a Curse-Breaker because the idea of travelling intrigued and thrilled me; I guess its because of the fact Dumbledore and the Dursleys kept me locked up in this country.

My Curse- Breaking career took me across the world and I also used the time to conduct murders of truly guilty people; for instance, in Egypt, I tracked down a man who had raped two women and drove over three children. I killed him by dropping a statue on his head.

I am now nearing the end of my tale. I have omitted several details, but none of them was truly important to the long-term view of the story. Besides I have decided to conduct a similar purge of Muggle America; I have begun collecting names and gathering intelligence of guilty parties - I don't care who, I collect them all; I look for politicians, bent mayors, corrupt industry owners and people involved in them, corrupt police officers, and even taxi drivers if they do something they shouldn't. Already my new Death List is 70 names long. I'm going to see if I can get it to 120. I'm already a good way up, so there is time.

Wish me luck!

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Soon there will be blood, and an unfamiliar voice will be blaring across America.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMAN - SILENCE, PLEASE - SOME OF YOU IN THIS AMAZING NATION HAVE BEEN CHARGED AND HAVE BEEN FOUND GUILTY…"


	7. Thief!

My last. Thanks for everything, guys.

Thief.

When the map of this part of London was almost ready, Selina knew that everything she did this year would be relatively simple. The map was a magical map which would show Selina precisely where someone was when she went out on the town. It was similar to the Marauder's Map, with the same charm and transfiguration work, but this map was far more complex. Hogwarts was a large school but this part of London, with its streets and back alleys, shops, cafes, restaurants and the Underground stations which dotted every street, made it more challenging because the spells which made the original map her daddy had made with his pals to plan out and carry out their pranks were overwhelmed by the sheer number of people and cars, buses and trains that her previous iterations of this map failed.

Frustrated, Selina tried again.

Three times.

Damn it! She cursed furiously, and ran a hand through her long black hair, frustrated. How many more times was she going to find herself with this problem?

She needed the map. The map would help her plot her burglaries, help her determine if someone was inside the building when she got inside. But the stupid things kept burning up.

And then she realised that she was allowing the map to focus on a large section of the city at the same time when all she needed to do was focus on a small part of it at a time.

Selina was a witch. She was also a thief who made a good living committing heists on anyone and anything that met her fancy, using her skills in magic and using her custom made wand to commit the thefts without anyone being able to track her down. Not that they could - Selina could transform herself into a cat and use her form to slip into places and get out again without being seen, and she had already confused dozens of people with how she had managed to break into places without any signs of forced entry, and people began to suspect she was one of those burglars who managed to somehow con the house owners she met to give her a key, but none of them were missing keys.

The idea that a witch was behind the thefts wasn't even voiced, nor was the existence of magic, but then again magic did not exist to muggles.

 _ **Selina was with a gang of kids, some of them older than she was, and she was helping them break into a house. Her hands were gloved and yet she felt sweaty as she picked up the smaller items. As one of the youngest and smallest of the children in the gang, Selina was easily the quickest and she had joined after finding out another in the same foster home was also in the gang, and she made it clear she just wanted in.**_

 _ **Selina had been orphaned as a kid. She had lived for a couple of years with Vernon and Petunia Dursley, and she had hated the unpleasant family with every ounce of her being. Finally, she yelled, frustrated and tired with being their little servant/boxing bag/scapegoat, "If you hate me so much, then get rid of me!"**_

 _ **It hadn't worked.**_

 _ **Finally she managed to run off after school with money stolen from her stupid babysitter Mrs Figg and fled into London. She changed her name and got herself caught. She was put into a foster home.**_

 _ **Sure, she didn't like the teenagers running the gang, but Selina was learning a great deal from them about how to break into other people's homes and businesses. This house was the seventh place her gang had broken into and it was full of pricey electronics. Selina grabbed a few of the house owners' things, and took them out of the window to the van waiting below.**_

 _ **She was one of them.**_

Selina had grown up in the muggle world, far from her native world. While she found muggles mundane and rather boring with their two-dimensional attitudes about life and the world around them, how they were constantly in political powder-kegs about to go boom, they were pathetically easy to fool when she used her magic.

The Dursleys had claimed magic didn't exist and yet they had tried to beat the freakishness out of her. Contrary to what the old fool Dumbledore thought, they had hated her and then she had managed to escape Number 4. She had scraped a living off the streets before she had become tired of living in the cold, so she had gone to a foster home.

 _ **She was a couple of years older and had already helped burgle a dozen houses, but she had never been party to robbery before. She and the gang she had joined had forced their way into another house in South London. It was a man and a woman, and judging by their expensive rings they were both married. The wife was screaming her head off as we burst through the doors, and I was already too agitated by how forceful my 'partners' were that I smacked her in the face and she shut up.**_

 _ **I could tell she was already pregnant, and I was content to just leave her like that while my 'partners' roughed the husband up a bit and told us where the money in his house was. I didn't know the point behind this robbery, but I knew I didn't like the robbery angle. Fortunately I wasn't the only one, and I was concerned. But my concern disappeared quickly when two of my partners were prepared to rape the wife. I tried to get in the way of them. I didn't want the baby to be hurt, but I was slapped in the head and knocked to the side.**_

 _ **In my stunned state, I couldn't do anything more than watch as I watched my thuggish 'comrades' force themselves onto the pregnant wife while her husband tried and failed to stop them. I sometimes have nightmares of that night to this day, and I remember taking great delight in finding the cowards who raped that woman, and I slit their throats.**_

The map was working properly at last. Selina smiled at it, inwardly remembering how she had arrived at Hogwarts. She had been surprised but had quickly grown bored with all the threats of 'retribution' and adulation thrown her way for the defeat of Lord Voldemort. Selina didn't even know what happened night my parents were murdered.

Selina's time at the school was weird, but when she learnt what had happened to my parents and their friends - Remus Lupin and Sirius Black in how they had brought down Lord Voldemort, though Dumbledore seemed convinced the Dark Lord was still alive, though it was a proven fact he was dead - she was even more upset. Selina had never really given that much thought about her parents and what they had done, but it wasn't until she had first seen the inside of her trust vault at Gringotts she managed to learn about them. That's gold dust to an orphan.

 _ **Selina sat on the edge of her bed in the foster home - she was just relieved Hagrid was a moron, otherwise she would have ended up back at the Dursleys, she was just glad she had given him the slip. But she was more interested in the little books she had quickly learnt were diaries, written by her parents and put into the trust vault. Hagrid had told her that Dumbledore had wanted to tell her about her parents himself, and he had tried to take them off her, but Selina was too experienced a thief to let that happen, but fortunately the goblin who had been with them, Griphook, had put an end to his attempts.**_

 _ **Selina was grateful that the goblin believed she had the right to know about the parents and not letting someone like Dumbledore control her in that manner.**_

 _ **But it had been hard to get away from the man and make her own way back to her home, but luckily she had managed to get herself a trunk that could shrink down at the touch of a rune and slip into the pocket like a matchbox or a wallet. When she had gotten away from Hagrid, she had pressed the right rune and the whole trunk shrunk down and she put it in her pocket, and sneaked onto a Tube train to head back to her foster home.**_

 _ **When she arrived back she hid the trunk and took out the diaries. Now she just had to read them.**_

 _ **As she opened one of the books and started to read it, she quickly learnt about her mother. Lily. Such a beautiful name and for the first time in her life, she grew to know about the woman instead of listening about it from the lips of the Dursleys who'd hated her mother. She found out her mother loved the colours silver and green, and she had gone into Gryffindor house because of her sense of bravery. She had quickly been disgusted by the members of her own house at Hogwarts - she thought many of them were irredeemably thick.**_

 _ **Selina was just reading the entries about her mother's fifth year when she heard a knock on the door. "What is it?" she called.**_

" _ **Dinner in five minutes."**_

" _ **Okay," Selina replied and she stuffed her diaries away in a hidden part of the room.**_

Selina learnt more, as it later turned out, from the diaries her parents had stuffed into that vault than she ever learnt during her time at Hogwarts. Most of her parent's friends and families were dead, killed during the war. She also learnt that her mother, an Unspeakable which was a cross, apparently, between a secret-agent and a scholarly scientist, learnt what Voldemort had done to make himself live longer. According to the diary, the method was the use of a piece of forbidden and evil magic known as a Horcrux which was apparently a piece of somebody's soul, and the influx of magic channeled into his body through the Dark Marks on his followers arms, branded by Voldemort himself.

Lily had scanned Voldemort during a confrontation with the Dark Lord in the Ministry of Magic itself when Voldemort had come personally to raze the Ministry to the ground, and had discovered the truth about Voldemort's supposed immortality. She learnt that the Horcrux was definitely there, and that it was the amount of raw magic from his followers that kept Voldemort from dying out.

They were also responsible for giving Voldemort so much magic to burn through. From the way the words in the diary went, which were like the carefully brushed strokes on a priceless work of art, her mother described Voldemort as a savage and viciously capable fighter who was more unpredictable than the average magician.

Lily had told her husband and she had come up with a plan but with the prophecy over their heads, though neither of her parents knew of the wording but they didn't believe it despite what Voldemort and Dumbledore believed since, according to her mother, who was the expert, prophecies were flimsy and they sometimes never got fulfilled, or if they did it could be months, or even centuries away. Lily had joined the Unspeakables because she had used a Time Turner to get around her lessons, but unlike with Hermione Granger who had used the same type of magic, her mother had been more interested in branching out.

In the four years she had access to the turner, she sneaked around the school and eventually mapped the Hogwarts secret passageways, and she also stunned Peter Pettigrew, a member of the Marauder's gang Selina's dad had founded, and copied the charm and transfiguration work. Selina now had access to those same spells and used them for her heists. But this was the first time she had ever used them. Most of the places she had broken into had either been mansions, homes, single jewellery shops. What she was planning to do was on a larger scale.

She used the device to have fun, unlike Hermione, who used it to study, and unlike Hermione she often used the device to rewind time back and use the intervals to get some kip. She didn't understand why Granger hadn't done that - it was so simple and easy. Just use the turner, rewind time by about four or five hours, and use that time to unwind instead of study all the time.

Her ingenuity with the Time Turner was a clinching point for her to become an unspeakable. They had snapped her up. She quickly rose through the ranks, but it seemed as though the name of the organisation leaked even to a diary being used to send her daughter, her only child, an account of what happened. Selina had been frustrated at first because she had wanted to know if Voldemort truly was dead; she wasn't like Hagrid, who believed wholeheartedly that if Dumbledore believed Voldemort was alive then he was alive, but if she started believing the word of everyone then she wouldn't make it to a ripe old age.

Selina had promised herself to never trust anyone. That promise had allowed her to learn a great deal about life, and she had learnt how to do things normal teens rarely learnt. But it wasn't until she found one of those magical photos of her parents, and two men she was sure were Sirius and Remus though she couldn't tell them apart, fighting Voldemort himself in what was clearly the last battle of the Dark wizard's life that she believed them.

The battle was fierce. All the photos were actually memories of what her mother and father had discovered. Lily had used a method known only to those who were skilled in the mind arts to transmute the memories into photos. They even spoke whenever she tapped them with her wand. It was like having a video or DVD player installed in a book. In one of the frames Selina learnt her parents had been betrayed by one of her father's friends, one Peter Pettigrew - just looking at the weak-willed moron as he cried like a little kid for his mummy made her sneer. Her parents had never really discovered what Voldemort had done to make him betray them, but judging from the way he cried and whined he'd simply been terrified, but Selina wasn't sure if that was it.

But Pettigrew had two things that made him important to her family at the time - first, he had betrayed the Potters and his friends to Voldemort, telling the Dark bastard about finding a way to kill Voldemort and make him mortal and vulnerable, and where they would be, and secondly Pettigrew had a Dark Mark.

But the fight was intense. Voldemort had been killed while James, Remus and Sirius held him off so Lily could complete the ritual to finish him off, but Voldemort managed to overpower her dad and his friends. Selina cried silently as she watched the memories play out; her 'uncles' were the first to die, but they fought long and hard against Voldemort, and then her dad died. Her mum by that point had more or less finished the ritual, but unfortunately Voldemort managed to injure her, and so she powered the ritual with her own magic and life. The magic of the ritual entered the Dark Mark and drained the one Horcrux Voldemort had made into a magical crystal her mother had used to siphon all of the magic of the Death Eaters and Voldemort into, and when it reached a specific level of fullness the crystal exploded.

Lord Voldemort was dead. So too were his followers, the same witches and wizards who had joined him out of fear, or a desire to 'cleanse the world of the filth,' but so too were her parents and uncles. Pettigrew didn't count. And she, Selina, had been handed over to the Dursleys without a thought or concern for her mental and physical wellbeing.

 _ **Selina looked at the headmaster in surprise. She could not believe what she had just heard from his mouth, but there was no mistaking how serious he was.**_

" _ **Excuse me, headmaster, but could you please repeat what you just said?" Selina asked.**_

" _ **Of course, my dear girl," Dumbledore said, "Lord Voldemort is still out there, and he has many followers and supporters who would like nothing more to see you harmed, therefore I must repeat and insist you return to your family. Your Aunt Petunia has expressed joy in having you back."**_

 _ **Selina lifted a brow, but she said not a word. Petunia had probably been upset at the prospect of her coming back and darkening her insanely neat house, but Dumbledore didn't seem like the observant type. He probably had not even noticed her reaction. It would be just like the dozy wizard who seemed to have a screw loose in his brain.**_

 _ **Another of Dumbledore's faults made an unwelcome and unnecessary appearance. "Also my dear, I would like to enquire if you would like to change houses?"**_

" _ **Why would I want to do that? I mean I am happy being in Slytherin," Selina replied, strengthening her occlumency barriers in case Dumbledore did something stupid. "I mean the Sorting hat said I would be doing well there, didn't you Mr Hat?"**_

 _ **She wasn't sure and frankly didn't care if the hat should be addressed in that manner, but it seemed to work. The hat jerked into life. "Indeed I did, Miss Potter, and if you are happy there, I will not re-sort you."**_

 _ **When she had read Hogwarts; A History and after hearing from Hagrid about how Slytherin was the house that spawned the most numbers of Dark Lords and Ladies, Selina had taken what he had said with a pinch of salt. Selina had spent enough time in the muggle world to know for sure word of mouth about a person, about how wonderful a politician or leader was since they could do or say something that was ill-chosen and ill-considered.**_

 _ **Besides, when Hagrid had made the wonderful mistake of telling her Dumbledore had dropped her off at the Dursleys, condemning her to spending some of her worst years in a cupboard under the stairs. Where was the wonderful wizard then? She didn't trust him. Now she trusted him even less because he was forcing her to go back to the Dursleys, and for trying to get her out of Slytherin when she had spent months settling in and making connections in the place, like a good snake.**_

 _ **Selina smiled at the hat, and while her eyes were fixed on the enchanted hat she kept an eye on Dumbledore through peripheral vision. The old wizard did not look happy that one of his schemes had failed. "Thank you," she replied.**_

" _ **You are welcome, Miss Potter," the Hat said, and she had to hide a smirk when she saw the hat send a look towards Dumbledore that WAS NOT welcome.**_

 _ **Selina didn't say anything to Dumbledore about the Dursleys. She didn't really see the point because the man had a brain and a set of ears that was like a sieve; you said one thing and it went straight out. It was the same with what he saw; he must have personally gone to see the Dursleys, and their reactions to his presence must have been funny, but he wouldn't have recognised their reactions when he told them SHE was going.**_

 _ **Selina fortified the occlumency barriers around her mind to prevent Dumbledore learning about the plans in her mind to deal with this problem.**_

As she refined the map, she considered what else had happened during the years she had spent at Hogwarts. When she had gone to the castle, she had been sorted into Slytherin house. When she had first heard of the house she had known no-matter what she did she would have conflict with them because she had gotten the impression she would have to deal with those kids who supported the kinds of life favoured by the Death Eaters.

She hadn't expected herself to be sorted there, though she had had the sneaking guess it would've happened. She had grown up in poverty, she had been abused; in short, she was the perfect Slytherin because you develop the ambitions needed to survive and to get better, to grow and to endure. You also developed a cunning mind, observant and always coming up with plans, making connections.

How morons like Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson, Vincent Crabbe, and Greg Goyle got themselves sorted into Slytherin, Selina had no idea. None of them embodied the true traits of a true Slytherin; all of them were bullying fucks who bullied and harassed everyone that got in their way. Selina was one of their victims at first, but thence had begun to humiliated all of them.

Malfoy was a great sport - you could pile a ton of blood and mud into his bed, carry out schemes that would make him look like an idiot while at the same time fuck up whatever 'plan' he came up with, though he broadcasted his aims with boasts every chance he got so you could tell what he had in mind in advance, and he still came back for more. Parkinson was just as bad, but she was so puppy dog with Malfoy, it was sick. Crabbe and Goyle were both pure examples of how stupid wizards could get if they went too far.

It didn't take long for Selina to quickly make herself into one of the top Slytherins of the house. It helped that Professor Slughorn favoured her, though outwardly he put on the air of a fawning fan but deep down she could see his melancholy that so many people had died. And it wasn't until one night when she confronted him that he opened up….

" _ **You gave Voldemort the knowledge of the Horcruxes?" Selina whispered in shock as she looked wide-eyed at her head of house.**_

 _ **Slughorn looked at her askance and shock. "How do you know about them?"**_

" _ **My mother. She had left diaries in my trust vault. I found them before my first year - they weren't hard not to notice, though that moron Hagrid tried to stop me taking them for some inane reason that Dumbledore wanted to tell me about my parents himself," Selina replied, finishing off with a sneer.**_

 _ **Slughorn momentarily forgot the grim subject and chuckled at the sneer, the disdain was the only reason Selina didn't lash out at him. "That sounds like Dumbledore," he commented, "the old fool believes everything in life should be secret, for some unimaginable reason."**_

" _ **You don't respect him," she observed.**_

" _ **I respect and admire his achievements," Slughorn explained simply. "But it's not difficult to see that the man has too many flaws. One of them was to allow Tom Riddle into the school," he shook his head, the haunted expression telling as he seemed lost in his memories, memories he clearly wished he could forget.**_

 _ **Selina licked her lips. "Riddle was Lord Voldemort, wasn't he?"**_

 _ **It wasn't a difficult deduction to make the connection between this Riddle and the same tyrant who'd cut a grisly path of murder throughout the country.**_

 _ **Ever since she had arrived in the magical world and learnt of Voldemort, she had noticed the flinches and the way people jerked as if afraid the Dark Lord would appear before them, reaching back into life from death, and attack them. She had always found their reactions pathetic, but she had learnt to ignore them.**_

 _ **After the usual flinch Slughorn nodded, confirming her guess. "Yes. Tom Riddle. He was perhaps one of the most intelligent students I had ever had in my classes; always brilliant, always intuitive, and always five steps ahead. He read potions articles voraciously and he was always interested in learning all he could, but if I had known what type of mind lurked behind that polite, well-mannered visage that was charming everyone around him….. I would have thrown the evil bastard out of my classroom. He conned me, you see, into telling me about the Horcruxes. I tried to resist, but the words tumbled out of my mouth."**_

" _ **He drugged you with a potion?"**_

 _ **Slughorn chuckled darkly. "Crystallised pineapple was always one of my vices," he commented. "Riddle took advantage of that and he used it to get the answers he sought. He was willing to know about the Horcruxes and he didn't care how he found out, but he knew if he didn't add a potion to the pineapple he handed to me as a gift then I wouldn't have told him anything."**_

 _ **Slughorn was silent for a long moment. "It's my fault," he said at last, remorse in his voice. "He made me reveal all I knew about those vile things; I didn't know the ritual, but I knew enough for him to get started out."**_

 _ **Selina decided this had to end; she was a naturally kind-hearted person, and she hated it whenever someone was in pain, and she had seen dozens of people in pain over the years. When she was in the foster home, an older girl, Nicole, had helped her adjust to her sudden environment of being alone and fighting to survive, to living in a house full of kids older and younger than herself. She had always tried to repay the favour because she had been in the same position. In the case of Slughorn she had the idea Riddle had allowed him to survive with the knowledge of what he'd revealed to make the man weep.**_

 _ **She wasn't going to let that happen now.**_

" _ **What did you tell him?" She asked simply, not seeing any harm in asking him the question, but she altered her tone to make it clear to Slughorn she wasn't going to take no for an answer.**_

 _ **Fortunately Slughorn seemed….she wouldn't exactly say keen, but it was the closest word she could use to describe the manner in which he spoke, but this wasn't the time.**_

" _ **He asked me about them after finding a reference to them in a book, and he asked me what they were. I told him they were a method of achieving immortality by splitting the soul," Slughorn summarised the conversation in just two sentences to get it out of the way. "I can't remember the rest - I modified my memory so no-one can see it, but I removed it."**_

 _ **Selina wasn't surprised by the potions master's misconception by what Horcruxes were reputed to do, not what they actually did. She had no hesitation in correcting him; just because Dumbledore liked playing around and ignoring the truth didn't mean she had to.**_

" _ **Riddle asked about the possibility of creating more than one Horcrux," Slughorn went on, "and he said the number seven. That is an important number in magic, but I told him it was impossible-,"**_

" _ **And he knew it," Selina interrupted.**_

 _ **Slughorn looked at her in surprise. "What? What do you mean? He knew making more than one of those things was dangerous?"**_

" _ **I'll tell you in a second, Professor," Selina replied; she needed to know what happened next. "Does Dumbledore have any inkling of what you told Riddle?"**_

" _ **More or less. Dumbledore knows I told Riddle something about Horcruxes, but he knows I wiped my memory of the event."**_

" _ **You….masked your memory?"**_

" _ **Riddle added another potion to the pineapple he gave me," Slughorn admitted shamefacedly. "The potion was designed to compel me to alter my memory so I would remove it, but it would keep the basic start of it to make sure I always avoided it if it came up in conversation. I removed it, sometimes I look at the memory and remember the lives that have been lost. But each time I do, I wipe the memory apart from the basics again in case Dumbledore tries looking through my mind. I don't know if the potion did that, last so long, or if its just my guilt. Dumbledore has spent the past 50 years trying to get his hands on it."**_

 _ **Selina looked at him in surprise, but something stood out. "Professor, if Riddle wanted to keep it secret, why would he make the potion so elaborate it would make you remove the memory and alter your mind enough so you'd forget the basics of the conversation with Riddle, why would he make you keep a small part of it so you could avoid talking about it to anybody else?"**_

 _ **Slughorn looked at her in surprise but Selina suddenly threw her head back and laughed. "Oh, that is brilliant," she crowed. "Oh, that is incredible."**_

" _ **I fail to see what's so funny."**_

 _ **Selina calmed down. "What house was Dumbledore in at Hogwarts?"**_

" _ **Gryffindor." Slughorn was confused.**_

" _ **Exactly, Gryffindor. The house of the so-called brave, the house which looks at everything in black and white, but never in grey. The house which favours chivalry but lacking in imagination. You and I are both Slytherins, professor. We know the world is also in grey tones, that it is twisted and not righteous. Riddle's tricked you, Professor."**_

" _ **W-what do you mean?" Slughorn looked at her befuddled as he tried to wrap his brain around what he was hearing. Selina realised she wasn't explaining this well enough.**_

" _ **Did anything happen that year, professor?" she asked him.**_

 _ **Slughorn's jowly face paled. "Yes, there were a number of attacks on muggleborns. One of them was killed, but we never found out what caused the death in the first place. Hagrid was arrested for the murder and the attacks, he was turned in by Tom Riddle himself."**_

" _ **Hagrid was framed. Did you tell Riddle how to make Horcruxes?"**_

" _ **No. I always assumed he learnt about it after he left the school."**_

" _ **He didn't. Don't you see, he knew already how to make them. He tricked you, professor. He knew that eventually someone would try to learn about how he'd become immortal, so he decided to leave clues. He knew that eventually Dumbledore would cotton on to what he had planned, but like the Gryffindor moron he is, Dumbledore wouldn't think Voldemort had actually decided to do something a bit more simple. I don't know where and when he learnt about the Horcruxes, but he found out enough about them to commit that murder and pin it on Hagrid," Selina said. "He went to you to find out if you knew about the Horcruxes, and when he realised you did, he decided to use you. It was an elaborate trap, Professor. Think it through."**_

 _ **Slughorn gasped after a second of thinking. "So, he knew about the ritual before he asked me, and he wanted Dumbledore to find out about the conversation I had with him?"**_

" _ **Yes." Selina replied. "He only made one Horcrux. He didn't make seven of them at all, but he had pushed that conversation he had with you to set up a giant con for Dumbledore, or anybody else looking into his past, to fall for."**_

 _ **Slughorn looked at her in disbelief. Selina pitied him because his expression told her he was having a hard time wrapping his brain around what he was learning right now. "How do you know this?" he whispered. "How do you know about the Horcruxes in the first place?"**_

 _ **Selina didn't comment on the logical question and so she removed her shrunken trunk from her pocket and re-sized it and took out the diaries. "I got these from my vault. My mother wrote them," she added.**_

 _ **Finding the entries on the Horcruxes was easy. When Slughorn read what Lily Potter had noted down, tears welled up in his eyes at the sight of that painfully familiar writing. "Did I ever tell you why I liked your mother so much, even going as far as seeing her as the daughter I never had? It was because, unlike many of the other Gryffindors, Lily had the imagination and the common sense to look beyond for answers. Even Hermione Granger today is like the other Gryffindors, always believing one source instead of looking further. Lily, on the other hand, would never have taken Dumbledore's word for anything, not until she had looked further."**_

" _ **That's why she was special," Selina whispered.**_

 _ **The two talked about what was in the diaries for another hour. Slughorn was shocked when he read what Lily had noted down about the Horcruxes for the sake of any grandchildren she and James would ever have if Selina had survived. "Horcruxes don't work?" He muttered to himself. "They just slice the lifespan of any idiot who uses them, or they only increase the life expectancy, but only by a few decades? What's this? Riddle used his followers for immortality? That explains a great deal. Why are you showing me this?"**_

" _ **To prove to you Voldemort is dead," Selina said, hardly surprised by the question because Slytherins NEVER volunteered information like this. "Because I wanted you to know about my long term plan, which is to reveal what my mother did."**_

" _ **I'm not sure its a good idea to reveal it to the magical world," Slughorn cautioned her, "the Horcruxes are taboo, and the Ministry and Dumbledore have gone to great lengths to suppress all knowledge of them; the idea a fifteen year old witch knows about them would be enough to make them go insane. The fact the Dark Marks were used to siphon magic away from the Death Eaters, well another Dark Lord could use the same plan to become immortal, so I don't think its wise for you to make it easier for them if it became common knowledge."**_

" _ **I wasn't thinking of telling them magical world, professor," Selina countered. "Do you know why Dumbledore seems hellbent on keeping me at my 'relatives,'" she air-quoted the word to highlight her feelings for the Dursleys, "constantly telling me how to live my life? It's because he thinks Voldemort is still out there, even with his followers dead. He doesn't know the truth."**_

 _ **Slughorn looked sharply at her, but then he looked resigned. "Yes. The sounds like Dumbledore, always poking his nose into other people's lives in his quest for personal self-recognition; don't look so surprised. I've known about Dumbledore's desires for decades. He wants to be admired, but up to a point; he means well, but his inability to think beyond the chessboard where everything in life is laid out neatly for him to play his game with is his greatest weakness. He would think whatever Riddle did in what's left of my memory of that meeting with the boy was just that and that Riddle hadn't done more before or after."**_

" _ **What is wrong with the Gryffindors anyway?" Selina shook her head in mock exasperation, as if genuinely confused by the Gryffindors stupidity, but was in fact not worried at all.**_

 _ **Slughorn smirked at her and she smirked back. They both knew she was speaking rhetorically. "I don't know," Slughorn replied playfully, deciding to play along. But then he became serious. "What do you plan to do?"**_

" _ **I was planning on telling Dumbledore what was in the diaries at first, but over time I realised it would be a waste of time."**_

" _ **So why would-? Oh, very good," Slughorn sighed in mock exasperation. "I should have known better than to believe a fellow Slytherin. You had no intention of releasing what was in the diaries did you? You only showed them to me to make me feel better, right?"**_

 _ **Selina giggled. "Of course. I knew I'd be wasting my time with the magical world, and I didn't want to make it easier for another moron to become immortal. Besides, in a few years time, Dumbledore will be seeing conspiracies with Voldemort linked to them all the time. How long do you think it will take before he is kicked out of the school?"**_

" _ **Dumbledore has many friends and political influences-," Slughorn tried to say, but he caught sight of the evil smirk on Selina's beautiful face. Not for the first time he wished he had had Lily Evans in his house, but at least the daughter could see far ahead.**_

Dumbledore hadn't made life easy for her when it came for her to leave Hogwarts, Selina remembered when she was inside a jewellery shop late at night. She had been inside the shop only six hours before, using a disguise applied by glamour spells. As she rooted around the shop with her wand, she remembered that day.

 _ **Selina was frustrated with the calm face of the elderly wizard in front of her - not for the first time, she wondered why the man had to sit in that golden throne, and she wondered if Dumbledore was trying to compensate for something - and she glared at him. "Let me see if I've gotten this right," she said, though she already knew what he wanted her to do. "You want me to give up my career plans to become a Curse-Breaker and become an Auror instead?"**_

" _ **Yes."**_

" _ **Give me one good reason why I should," Selina glared at him, her eyes flashing maliciously. "And don't even dare to bring up Voldemort; the Dark Lord has been dead for nearly two decades!"**_

" _ **Why do you continue to believe he's dead? I believe he is lying low," Dumbledore whispered the last few words for dramatic effect, as if worried Voldemort would appear out of thin air behind Selina.**_

 _ **Selina shook her head at him in disbelief - Dumbledore probably thought she was finally accepting the truth, but he was disappointed. "Oh come on! The clues have been in front of you all this time," she snapped, finally deciding enough was enough. She reinforced her occlumency barriers in case the old moron tried to re-write her memories of the current argument for his own sake. "Lord Voldemort only made one Horcrux!"**_

 _ **Dumbledore leapt to his feet so fast the throne was thrown back, his expression thunderous. "How do you know about those!?" He boomed.**_

 _ **Selina pretended to yawn at his melodrama and lifted her wand, "I, Selina Lily Potter, do hereby swear that what I am about to reveal to Albus Dumbledore is the truth, this I swear on my magic. So mote it be!"**_

" _ **Lord Voldemort tricked you, Dumbledore," Selina said after she finished the oath, not even bothering to be respectful to the old wizard. "He had learnt about them long before he came back to Hogwarts. He tricked Slughorn into wiping his memory, but leaving enough clues behind for someone gullible to find it. He had no intention of making anymore Horcruxes; I don't know what the bastard was doing at the time, but he must have experienced some side-effects from making his only Horcrux, and so he marked the Death Eaters."**_

 _ **Dumbledore hissed in disbelief.**_

 _ **Selina smirked at him. "I knew that would get your attention," she gloated, amused at finally getting one over the old man. "You forced the Order into stunning them without knowing they were responsible for partly giving Voldemort the means to live longer. Tell me, if you had known, would you have ordered your precious group to begin killing them?"**_

" _ **How do you know about the Order?" Dumbledore asked (Selina shook her head mentally and snorted at the rather transparent way Dumbledore tried to avoid answering the question) sternly.**_

" _ **My mother's diaries. They were left in my trust vault. That brainless oaf you sent to introduce me the magical world tried to take them off me," Selina snarled; even after all this time she hadn't forgiven Hagrid for his faux pas. "What gives you the right to decide what I know about my parents? What's wrong, don't you like orphans knowing anything about themselves?! Who do you think you are!?"**_

 _ **Selina calmed down and spoke before Dumbledore could speak. "Voldemort conned you. He conned Slughorn. I don't blame him at all, he's a victim as much as anyone else. You have no reason to deny the fact you've wasted so much of your time all these years Headmaster, Voldemort is dead. There is nothing you can do about it. He is dead. You have no reason to interfere in my affairs. Leave me alone. My mother used a ritual on him to drain the magic from him, the Death eaters, and the Horcrux."**_

 _ **She was so angry, she showed him the diary with the memories in them and she marched over to him to make sure she held onto the diaries in case the old fool tried to take them from her. But Dumbledore was shocked into submission when he saw the memories and heard Lily's voice as she explained about the Horcruxes, and the knowledge the Unspeakables had about them. The old man looked shaken.**_

 _ **When she left, she looked over her shoulder at the still man. "For what it's worth, I can understand your vigilance," she said softly. "I also understand why you did what you've done, but look to the future and stop thinking everything is a conspiracy."**_

 _ **With that she left.**_

Selina had joined the Curse-Breakers and she had quickly made a reputation for herself for her thirst for magical knowledge. It had been seven years since she had left Hogwarts and yet no-one knew she also made a living on the side as a thief. She doubted any body would care. She wasn't sure if she was ready to get married just yet, or whether she was even the marriage type. She had never had feelings for anyone during her time at Hogwarts - many of the boys had repulsed her with their arrogance, but some had been shy and endearing, but not her type.

Apart from that, her double life of being a Curse-Breaker and a thief was going well.


End file.
